A former high school football coach turned state lawmaker is sponsoring a bill to alert coaches to the signs of sudden cardiac arrest – the number one cause of death in student athletes.
Statehouse correspondent Karen Kasler reports.
Republican Sen. Cliff Hite of Findlay says one in a hundred kids has an undetected heart condition – and he admits that as a coach, he might not always have seen the signs of trouble and just pushed a player on: “I think that’s probably what I would have done. ‘What’s the matter with you? Come on, Andy – let’s kick it up, let’s go.’ And they say, ‘well, I can’t.’ ‘Well, you’re going to have to. We got this game coming up.’ Yeah, I think probably we would have pushed him.”
Hite’s bill calls on-line training and education for coaches so they can recognize the signs of sudden cardiac arrest. It’s modeled after measures that have passed in nine states and are pending in four, and is similar to concussion education legislation that’s passed in every state.