Foundation Hosts Event Highlighting Prevention of Injuries and Cardiac Arrest in Sports

Experts and activists gathered Thursday night at the Hauser Auditorium at The Pingry School’s Martinsville Campus. The reason? To discuss something that has increasingly become a hot-button topic in recent years: the effect of sports injuries on our youth.

The evening -- titled “Mitigating Sports Risks for Students” -- was sponsored by the John Taylor Babbitt Foundation, which is a non-profit organization operated by Dave and JoAnne Babbitt to raise awareness and prevention of sudden cardiac death. The Babbitts’ son, John, died of sudden cardiac arrest in 2006 at the age of 16 while playing basketball in his youth ministry league.

The event, which featured guest lectures from doctors with expertise in the fields of concussions, ACL injuries, and sudden cardiac arrest, was the first of its kind for the JTB Foundation.

“This is a new way for us to reach out to the community, to have an event like this," said Dave Babbitt. “What’s nice about this (is) having people who have a need for an understanding of these issues. It’s very important for us.”

The presentation was attended by athletic trainers, coaches, parents, and student athletes alike, who were able to participate in a Q & A session with the doctors in attendance.

Dr. Mark Silberman, a specialist in sports medicine and Director of the New Jersey Sports Medicine and Performance Center, also specializes in concussions, and brought forth some alarming facts about concussions. Those facts included the reality of what a concussion is: a functional disturbance of the brain that is often hard to detect, as it shows no visible structural damage.

Symptoms of a concussion may sometimes be as mild as a minor headache, but the effects could be much further reaching—especially if a student-athlete re-enters competition with any such symptoms, no matter how seemingly insignificant.

“Symptoms might be mild, but in no way is there such a thing as a mild concussion," said Silberman. “It’s just like a stroke or a heart attack. A stroke is still a stroke, and a heart attack is still a heart attack.”

Silberman also placed some of the onus on coaches to teach their players fundamentals and respect. Such a thing would not only prevent injuries—it would prevent risky behavior from student athletes on and off the field.

“What you teach on a ball field carries over into life," said Silberman, “and will make a huge difference in all our lives.”

Dr. John Hurley, a sports medicine specialist who specifically treats injuries of the knee and shoulder with the Summit Medical Group, was the next to speak. Dr. Hurley focused on the occurrence of ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) injuries in the knees of female athletes.

The information Dr. Hurley presented was alarming, in that it showed that young women who participate in sports are four-to-eight times more likely to suffer an ACL injury than their male counterparts.

There are several reasons for a higher likelihood of injuries in female athletes, from starting sports at a younger age to today’s ultra-competitive youth sports culture. The biggest factor, however, is physical conditioning.

By doing things like wearing the proper shoes, using proper technique in jump and plyometric exercises, and incorporating more core strength exercises into a workout routine, all athletes are less likely to sustain an injury to an ACL.

This is especially important for young women who, due to anatomical differences from the bodies of their male counterparts, often land in what Dr. Hurley called a “knock-kneed” position after a jump. Core muscle strength prevents this, as it creates less of a strength deficiency in a female athlete’s body.

Injury prevention, according to Dr. Hurley, is paramount to athletic success in all sports.

“If you can prevent injuries, you’re going to have a winning season and very high-performing athletes without injuries," said Hurley.

Dr. Martin Maron, the Director of the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Center and Co-Director of Advanced Cardiac Imagine at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, was the last to speak on his expertise—sudden cardiac arrest.

An equally alarming and surprising statistic, stated Dr. Maron, is that deaths in young athletes have been on the rise in the United States over the past couple of decades—and that a majority of them have been caused by some cardiovascular problem. Even more alarming is the fact that, in America, one athlete dies every three days.

“As a society, we generally perceive young athletes to be the healthiest segment of our population," said Maron.

Sudden cardiac death is especially prevalent in basketball and football. Combined, the two sports account for 90% of young athlete deaths caused by SCD.

Thirty-six percent of cardiac deaths are caused by proven cases of Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, or HCM, which is a thickening of the heart that can begin as early as infancy. Dr. Maron advises that, as a precaution, those with HCM stay away from ultra-competitive, strenuous physical activity, while still maintaining a healthy, fit lifestyle.

The condition is defined by an abnormal muscular substrate of the heart, which can cause a heart to go into cardiac arrest.

“The abnormal substrate sets up the opportunity to generate abnormal rhythms, especially in organized sports," said Maron.

The abnormal rhythm, which Dr. Maron described as “chaotic” -- must be treated quickly—for every minute a heart stays in a state of cardiac arrest, that person’s chances of survival decrease by about ten percent.”

In the end, the event raised awareness of sudden cardiac arrest, as well as knowledge of how to treat other sports injuries, which was the overall mission of the program and all part of the JTB Foundation’s overall mission.

“The foundation has really taken off, and is making an impact," said Maron.

For more information on the John Taylor Babbitt Foundation and its programs, visit the foundations website at http://www.jtbfoundation.org.