Posted on 05/26/2015 7:20:13 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Dana Housley was at bat in the bottom of the 8th inning with the game on the line, when suddenly the 15-year-old complained of dizziness.
“She turned to look at me, which I thought was kinda odd in the middle of the pitch, and she said ‘coach Angelo, I feel dizzy,'” Angelo Michaels said. “As she was walking toward me, her knees started to give way and I caught her.”
...
It was believed that Housley may have suffered a brain aneurysm, according to a post on her GoFundMe page.
“She has been placed on life support because she is unable to breathe on her own, nor is there any brain activity,” the post stated.
(Excerpt) Read more at ktla.com ...
I remember in Jr high our dopey gym teacher had us stand in a line along the 3rd base line waiting to bat. One day a teammate of mine sharply pulls a ball down the 3rd base line and the large ‘softball’ (not so soft!) hits me square in the eye! The nurse gave me an icepack and sent me home (alone). I remember being very disorientated and dizzy on the mile plus walk home. I was 13 or 14 at the time, and the year was 1970 or 71. Imagine if such a thing happened today. My parents probably could have sued the city for a million bucks.
Sad. There always seems to be one in every high school class
in my high school, the same thing happened to a boy who was a varsity swimmer. Felt dizzy during practice, coughed blood and died not too longer.
After autopsy, it was found he had a very thin wall in one section of his heart, which eventually burst.
Is there anything coaches and teachers could have done to prevent this in what was otherwise a healthy kid?
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The only thing I could think of would be mandatory screening of athletes and prospective athletes (eg, a stress test and/or EEG for the heart, maybe a brain scan for aneurysm). The problem is who will pay for this testing. The family's health insurance may not be willing to pay unless there was a reasonable suspicion that something is wrong, and in many cases, there are no symptoms or warning signs. Should the school district foot the bill? Well, I can't see the taxpayers wanting to pay for this testing. Already they aren't happy paying school taxes to fund athletics as it is.
I don't know what the answer is.
This is so sad. I think its a good idea for kids to get a medical screening before playing sports. For example an echocardiogram is a relatively fast and non-invasive imaging scan with color doppler to check heart walls for motion and valves.for too much leakage. (regurgitation).
Also its rare for a kid to get an aneurysm burst but it does happen.
This is sad. She was apparently a top flight player and young woman. My wife had a relative who died of an aneurysm as well. It was like someone flipped a lightswitch, she was gone in an instant.
I had that just a few months ago; the procedure is sort of "marker", as it was explained to me -- then it's followed with a stress echo to look for murmers or leakage.
Combined, it all ends up very pricey.
ping
My heart breaks.
I hav a friend who lost her son like this. During a soccer game he just passed out and died. Unbeknownst to the family he had something wrong with his heart.
So tragic.
I have one every year. Both my sons and my sister have had one, and my daughter will have one sometime before she turns 18. I have mild HCM, which runs in families, so all my blood relatives have to be tested.
Unfortunately, brain aneurysms are hard to detect and almost always are only discovered when they blow.
Seems like today it should be possible to get an image of a heart to determine if there are any abnormalities.
I don’t recall what the total billed amount was, since (fortunately) Medicare and my Plan F supplemental fully covered both.
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