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HEADLINE: Undiagnosed heart condition likely killed teen basketball player,
police say
SOURCE: CP
BODY:
GUELPH, Ont. (CP) _ Heart failure apparently killed a young basketball player
who collapsed before a high school game, police said Wednesday.
Aaron Hayward, 17, collapsed suddenly on the gymnasium floor of St. James
high school in Guelph on Tuesday afternoon during a pre-game warm-up.
Preliminary autopsy results showed Hayward had an enlarged heart that had
gone unnoticed, Sgt. Ron Lord said.
"It's very tragic,'' Lord said. "He died of a medical condition that went
undetected.''
While authorities say sudden cardiac death is rare among young people, a
condition known as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy has been known to strike young
athletes.
"HCM is the most common heart condition that causes sudden death in athletes,
'' said University of Guelph professor John Dawson.
"It's a congenital defect in the heart that causes it to become enlarged,''
Dawson said. "It can take several years before it hits them, but when it hits it
's really sudden.''
Boston Celtics basketball star Reggie Lewis and figure skater Sergei Grinkov
both collapsed and died suddenly from cardiomyopathy complications, Lewis in
1993 and Grinkov in 1995.
The cause of HCM is not known, Dawson said, but in about half of the cases
the condition is inherited.
police say
SOURCE: CP
BODY:
GUELPH, Ont. (CP) _ Heart failure apparently killed a young basketball player
who collapsed before a high school game, police said Wednesday.
Aaron Hayward, 17, collapsed suddenly on the gymnasium floor of St. James
high school in Guelph on Tuesday afternoon during a pre-game warm-up.
Preliminary autopsy results showed Hayward had an enlarged heart that had
gone unnoticed, Sgt. Ron Lord said.
"It's very tragic,'' Lord said. "He died of a medical condition that went
undetected.''
While authorities say sudden cardiac death is rare among young people, a
condition known as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy has been known to strike young
athletes.
"HCM is the most common heart condition that causes sudden death in athletes,
'' said University of Guelph professor John Dawson.
"It's a congenital defect in the heart that causes it to become enlarged,''
Dawson said. "It can take several years before it hits them, but when it hits it
's really sudden.''
Boston Celtics basketball star Reggie Lewis and figure skater Sergei Grinkov
both collapsed and died suddenly from cardiomyopathy complications, Lewis in
1993 and Grinkov in 1995.
The cause of HCM is not known, Dawson said, but in about half of the cases
the condition is inherited.
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