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Home News Tribune Lawmaker to introduce bill on screening for heart ailment that claimed 2 young athletes CENTRAL JERSEY — Spurred by the deaths of high school students from a sometimes symptomless heart ailment, a Central Jersey lawmaker is expected to introduce legislation Thursday designed to heighten awareness and implement measures to detect hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in scholastic athletes. "To me, this was a no-brainer," Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan, D-Middlesex, said of his pending bill. "If we can save kids' lives, why the heck wouldn't we? It's that simple." Known more commonly as "enlarged heart," hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) occurs in 1 in 500 people and is the leading cause of sudden death in young athletes. It claims the lives of about 75 student-athletes per year nationwide, and has killed dozens of prominent professional and college players. HCM caused sudden cardiac arrest in two popular Middlesex County students who died on the playing field less than eight months apart last year. Diegnan's legislation follows emotional meetings with the families of Kittim Sherrod, a 17-year-old Edison High School football star who collapsed and died during an April 30, 2009 track practice, and Brandon James, a 17-year-old South Brunswick High School senior who collapsed and died during a Dec. 17, 2009 intramural basketball game. Chair of the Assembly's Education Committee, Diegnan is sponsoring a bill that requires the Commissioner of Education, in consultation with the Commissioner of Health and Senior Services, the American Heart Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, to develop a sudden cardiac death and HCM awareness program for all high school athletes, their parents or guardians and coaches. The program shall include information about HCM and sudden cardiac death, the incidence among student-athletes, a description of early warning signs and an overview of privately available cardiac screening options and treatments. In addition, Diegnan has drafted a resolution, which he also will introduce today, that urges all schools to install automated external defibrillators and to implement a CPR training program for all students and staff. The resolution urges schools to train staff on the use of AEDs and to develop emergency action plans to respond to cardiac arrests and similar health crises which may occur on school grounds. The bill requires all high school coaches and all intramural athletics program advisors to discuss HCM screening options with student-athletes before the first practice or contest of each sports season. It also calls for the addition of three members, appointed by the Commissioner of Health and Senior Services, to the recently established New Jersey Student Athlete Cardiac Screening Task Force. The new members may include the parent or guardian of a child diagnosed with or who has died from HCM, a high school coach, a representative from the Hibernia-based Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Association (HCMA) or a certified athletics trainer. The bill requires the task force to make revisions, if necessary, to the annual athletic preparticipation physical examination form to address cardiovascular conditions including HCM. "I feel very grateful and honored that Assemblyman Diegnan has taken a stand," said Sherrod's grandmother, Razeenah Walker. "He promised that he would be there for us and he kept his word. "I am just so overwhelmed. We know that this is maybe just one step, but it is a step to making changes and protecting our children and bringing awareness, so I think this is a glorious, great day." Lisa Salberg, founder and CEO of the HCMA, who co-authored a book about HCM with Dr. Barry Maron, widely regarded as the world's leading expert on HCM, lauded Diegnan's legislation. "It is our goal to make New Jersey the model which all other states will emulate for sudden cardiac arrest prevention in the young," she said. "This legislation is a great start toward achieving this goal. "It is important legislation that will ensure the safety and well-being of not only students but faculty and visitors to all New Jersey schools. Encouraging AED placement is a critical link (to) survival. Implementation of CPR training for all students and staff will help to provide New Jersey with a population that is ready to respond to cardiac arrest no matter where it occurs. This legislation only helps to make New Jersey a better place to live." The bill will be assigned to the assembly's education committee, which could hold a hearing on it as early as next month. Once out of committee, the full assembly will vote on the bill. If approved, the bill will go before the state senate. If it passes through both houses, the bill will be brought to Gov. Chris Christie to sign into law. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) causes the cells of the heart muscle to grow abnormally thick, increasing a person's chance of dying abruptly from a violent interruption in the electrical activity of the heart, known as sudden cardiac death. It usually surfaces during or after adolescence and is the leading cause of cardiac death in people under age 30. Warning signs can include palpitations, racing heart, dizziness, lightheadedness, shortness of breath, fainting and chest discomfort. Those with HCM, a silent killer whose initial strike is often fatal, may have no symptoms at all. Therefore, Salberg said, early detection is paramount. "We know what it feels like to lose our precious angels, especially when we thought they were all so strong and well," Walker said. "We have been in the dark and it was going on for years before we even knew about HCM and now here it is. All these different families have come together and we all share in one common cause." HCM also claimed the life of John Taylor Babbitt, a 16-year-old student-athlete at the Pingry School in Martinsville, who collapsed and died during a Feb. 26, 2006 youth ministry basketball game. Diegnan met Babbitt's family and Ryan Miller, a 2008 Monroe High School graduate and HCM survivor who made returned to the varsity soccer field following a heart transplant, during last weekend's Kittim N. Sherrod Heart-to-Heart HCM awareness walk in Edison. "It is my hope and expectation that we will have this legislation signed into law," Diegnan said. "The credit goes to the families. The courage that they possess is really remarkable. "They have become champions of this issue, and when it gets signed into law, believe me, I hope that they are standing at the governor's side."
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