Sudden Cardiac Death Facts

Sports where sudden cardiac death occurs most often as a result of heart disorders:

• Football
• Basketball
• Soccer
• Track

Other Observations

Since 1999 the Savino Foundation has located numerous cases of sudden cardiac death in students ages 5 to 18.   Our findings indicate that deaths are occurring more frequently during practice sessions and during physical education classes when AED's are not readily available.

We have also found that SCD cases occur most often in student athletes between the ages of 14 to 17 with an incidence mostly in males, although there has been a rise in female athlete deaths.

50 -80% of all athletes who die suddenly have some type of warning symptoms such as light-headedness, dizziness, shortness of breath, chest discomfort. (Source: Dr. Barry Franklin, Director of Cardiac Rehabilitation - Beaumont Hospital, Michigan).

40% of sudden cardiac death in student athletes has been caused by an abnormal thickening of the heart muscle known as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM).   (Source:   Dr. Robert Myerburg, Director of Cardiology at the University of Miami School of Medicine and Jackson Memorial Hospital).

2008 Congressional Declarations

In 2008, two bills were passed by the United States Congress declaring October "National Sudden Cardiac Arrest Awareness Month" and the first week of June, "National Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Automated External Defibrillator Week".