11 Year Old Boy Dies during PE Lesson...

[Halcyon]

That is a terrible thing to happen and my thoughts are with his family.
As far as I know, this can happen to nearly anyone and is a rare condition where someone seeming perfectly healthy can suddenly die instantly of a hear attack.

Its such a terrible thing to happen, especially to such a young person.

[Maggy J]

Last week I heard about a professional footballer who collapsed with a heart attack.Apparently he had always had a congential heart condition but just didn't know it.He survived luckily for his young family but will never play again..

Frankly with the desire to get our children healthy and with the likelihood that it was a condition that could have happened at any time I very much doubt that PE is in any danger of being cancelled as a subject.What with all the sports halls ,playing fields and equipment that would go to waste plus all those specialist PE teachers...no chance.

[homealone]

Originally Posted by Incognitas

Last week I heard about a professional footballer who collapsed with a heart attack.Apparently he had always had a congential heart condition but just didn't know it.He survived luckily for his young family but will never play again..

Frankly with the desire to get our children healthy and with the likelihood that it was a condition that could have happened at any time I very much doubt that PE is in any danger of being cancelled as a subject.What with all the sports halls ,playing fields and equipment that would go to waste plus all those specialist PE teachers...no chance.

Terry Yorath's son died suddenly kicking a football, iirc - football wasn't banned - but that doesn't mean any disrespect, rather the opposite, in my opinion

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...382760,00.html

[danielf]

Originally Posted by homealone

Terry Yorath's son died suddenly during a football match, iirc - football wasn't banned - but that doesn't mean any disrespect, rather the opposite, in my opinion

Marc-Vivien Foe. Semi Final confederations cup. This was a professional football player. Someone who, I imagine, had very regular check-ups.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/sports_talk/3024376.stm

[Maggy J]

Originally Posted by danielf

Marc-Vivien Foe. Semi Final confederations cup. This was a professional football player. Someone who, I imagine had very regular check-ups.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/sports_talk/3024376.stm

That wasn't the one I was thinking about.My example survived.Mind I remember that one as well.Seems like it is a VERY common occurrence.

One wonders how stringent and deep the check ups are for professional sportsmen and women.

[homealone]

Originally Posted by Incognitas

That wasn't the one I was thinking about.My example survived.Mind I remember that one as well.Seems like it is a VERY common occurrence.

One wonders how stringent and deep the check ups are for professional sportsmen and women.

note the http://www.c-r-y.org.uk/ link

[Chrysalis]

PE wont be cancelled, it does more good then harm but I think we need to be raised awareness and learn from this, too many people think problems such as heart attacks cannot happen to young people which is simply wrong.

Originally Posted by Incognitas

Last week I heard about a professional footballer who collapsed with a heart attack.Apparently he had always had a congential heart condition but just didn't know it.He survived luckily for his young family but will never play again..

Frankly with the desire to get our children healthy and with the likelihood that it was a condition that could have happened at any time I very much doubt that PE is in any danger of being cancelled as a subject.What with all the sports halls ,playing fields and equipment that would go to waste plus all those specialist PE teachers...no chance.

Exactly. Perhaps those who like to have a pop at the "PC Brigade" at every opportunity might want to reflect on how tasteful it is to make stupid, cheap points following someone's death, let alone a child's.

On the issue of heart attacks, I had one a few years back. The doctors are unsure what caused it, their best bet being my narrowed artery is a 'genetic quirk'. So pretty much it could have happened any time. In such circumstances it's difficult to see how such incidents can be prevented as schools are not about to start doing angiograms alongside BCG jabs. With regard to this boy, I hope doctors are able to give some answers to the family as to what happened - if it is congenital it may then be possible to examine any siblings to prevent any further tragedy.

[Angua]

Originally Posted by makikomi

Let's face it, everything we did is a balance of risk against gain.

Just sitting in front of your PC reading this post, you're assuming that the building you're in is structurally sound, that aircraft won't crash into your home, that your boiler won't explode, etc etc

Life without risk is impossible. Even if it was posible, let's face it, it'd be bloody boring.

So while I feel for the kid's family and friends, as already said there must have been underlying health problems. This shouldn't be an issue about whether sports are safe. It could be reasonably argued that sports are NOT safe. Thousand of people get injured and a few die doing sports every year. But those people are balancing the risk of doing something they love and enjoy.

This should be an issue about whether everyone should have a periodic full medical screening to detect any possible signs of developing or congenital illness or disease. I've long thought that an annual human MOT would be a great idea as prevention (and early treatment) is cheaper and better than curing something that has had time to grow into a full-blown illness.

As you say there is not enough emphasis on prevention yet. Although to be fair the medical profession do seem to be trying prevention but at present it is somewhat piecemeal rather than the holistic approach which would catch more, sooner.

Originally Posted by Angua

As you say there is not enough emphasis on prevention yet. Although to be fair the medical profession do seem to be trying prevention but at present it is somewhat piecemeal rather than the holistic approach which would catch more, sooner.

I agree that health provision and monitoring is fragmented; difficult to get a holistic approach when records are not shared among care providers and communication between GPs and other healthcare professionals is pretty apalling. However, I'm not sure you can screen for narrowed arteries. If there is evidence of genetically transmitted conditions then yes, but for the wider population I'm not so sure. What is apparent that a diet etc is supremely unlikely to cause a heart attack in a child. Causal motivators such as stress, smoking etc tend not to kick in until a patient is in their late 40s/50s.

[Maggy J]

THIS
was the person I was thinking of.

Thanks for the link homealone.

[Salu]

Medically speaking there isn't really such a thing as a Heart Attack. Its an expression that has formed over the years. However it is generally accepted that it refers to the medical condition of Myocardial Infarction. This is when there is ischaemia in the myocardium (a lack of oxygen supplying the heart muscle) which leads to the heart muscle being damaged or destroyed. The heart is likely to go into an irregular rhythm which can cause it to stop it circulating blood which leads to death....

In adults this is usually due to thickening of the arteries (Atherosclerosis) and or thrombosis (blood clot). In a child it is rare and can due to a number of different things. They can be due to acute inflammation of the coronary arteries leading to spasm and then MI or a physiological anomoly such as Marfan's syndrome or, Takayasu arteritis or an aneurysm etc etc. Sudden death is another cause as Ramrod posted a link to earlier. Another cause especially seen during exercise is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HOCM) which simplistically is an abnormally thick left ventricle.

The point I am making is that the media and others often group these as "heart attack" but the mechanism is very different in children than adults and is not related to diet in children.

Very sad and tragic. Screening for this would probably not be cost effective due to the relatively small numbers involved compared to the cost of diagnosing them. It depends on the screening costs of course. If it was a simple blood test or urine test then the cost would be less than xrays and MRIs. These types of condition are diagnosed with ultrasound and xrays......meaning high costs....With healthcare you have to compare this cost to the cost of treating more prolific diseases. Would screening for this condition for example reduce the available money to treat Childhood asthma which can also lead to death....which one allows the money to be more efficiently used? See what I mean?

[Shaun]

Originally Posted by Saxodriver

I await the schools choice on banning PE now, as with school trips, no school will do them!. .

What a load of tosh, my cousin's just come back from a delightful week on the south coast with his school.

Where do you get your information from?

[Theodoric]

God, I used to hate PT (Physical Training!).

And as an unrelated aside, although French is till known as French and History is still known as History, PE was formerly known as PT (Education is much more academic than Training) and RE as RI (Religious Instruction - teachers would probably be sacked nowadays for daring to "instruct" anyone).

And I strongly suspect that "woodwork" has been consigned to the dustbin of educational history. And, believe or not, the days when woodwork teachers were allowed to throw a bit of scrap wood at a misbehaving pupil were actually slightly before my school days.

[Graham M]

"Woodwork" as you put it is now part of "Resistant Materials" which includes plastics and metals as well so it kinda makes sense.