Athletes “Dying Suddenly” and the work at My-HeartCheck
Article/COVID-19 and Education - 7 minute read
The topic of athletes and other healthy young adults “dying suddenly” has become a common topic in the news after the COVID-19 pandemic, many believing the cause to be due to the vaccines for the virus. One of many Kansas schools that encouraged children to get the COVID vaccine was Baldwin City School District USD 348. On the district’s website, they provide information on COVID-19 prevention measures that the district is taking for the 2021-2022 school year including strongly encouraging “all staff and students eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, in consultation with [their] physician, to be vaccinated.” The page also says the district will continue to provide “educational information” on the COVID-19 vaccination to students, staff, and families. Furthermore, the page also states that the district will work with local public health officials to provide opportunities for vaccination for staff, students, and families.
On February 1, 2023, USD 348 Superintendent Mark Dodge sent an email out to parents informing them that an organization known as “My-HeartCheck” would be at Baldwin Elementary Intermediate Center to provide “comprehensive heart assessments for local families.” Through “special arrangements,” HeartChecks are to be offered on March 21, 2023 to anyone ages 8 to 25 for a special price of $149, normally a $1500 investment.
One parent emailed Dodge back, stating, “I hope you realize this is all being done because of the vaccines that were given to these young children, without FDA approval… all done via EUA. Which is ‘emergency use authorization’ which is still where the ‘gene therapy shots’ still sit to current day.”
We reached out to Dodge on Thursday, March 2, 2023, to ask why he decided to bring My-HeartCheck to the school. As of this publishing he has yet to reply.
On the My-HeartCheck website, you must schedule with them to make an appointment. However, according to founder and owner of My-HeartCheck Eric Schroeder, the organization reaches out to schools to “gauge their interest in hosting a heart screening for their students.” He explained that the organization, based out of Overland Park, KS, covers several states in the Midwest.
“There is no direct cost to the schools but there are indirect costs like providing the venue for testing and distribution of materials to alert parents of the opportunity,” Schroeder wrote in an email to The Kansas Constitutional. “We do work quite a bit in schools and did so exclusively prior to COVID. When schools shut down during the pandemic, we had to find alternative test sites and thus turned to local hospitals and pediatric offices.”
Schroeder also claimed that they get requests from schools weekly, many of which ask them back each year, some even holding multiple events depending on the school district’s size. Now booked out until May, Schroeder said they “saw a small uptick in requests after the pandemic but a large increase after Dumar Hamlin of the Buffalo Bills had cardiac arrest on Monday Night Football.”
My-HeartCheck has been around since 2014, growing every year. Originally, they went by the name “Athletic Testing Solutions” but changed to “ATS HeartCheck” when they received “numerous questions” about whether non-school athletes could participate. In 2021 they filed and were granted copyright to “My-HeartCheck” to make it clear that screenings were for any children between the ages of 8 and 25. Schroeder claims that after more than 14,000 tests, they have found issues in about 8 percent of those tested with 1.5 percent of them needing “serious attention from cardiac specialists.”
My-HeartCheck has already screened at Olathe Public Schools USD 233 in January of this year and Louisburg High School in February. Screenings coming up for or in cooperation with other schools include De Soto Unified School District 232, Maple Grove Elementary in Warrensburg, MO, Lansing School District, Cradle thru College Care in Kansas City, MO, and Piedmont Public Schools in Piedmont, OK.
For an overview of My-HeartCheck, click here.
A Deeper Look into Young People “Dying Suddenly”
In a 2006 study reporting on sudden cardiac death (SCD) in sport for competitive athletes under the age of 35 years found that reported cases of SCD occurred 1101 times between 1966 to 2004. This averages out to be 2.4 deaths a month. It was reported that 50 percent had congenital anatomical heart disease and cardiomyopathies. Early-onset atherosclerotic heart disease was found in 10 percent of athletes. These findings were found in 40 percent of the athletes under 18 years old with 33 percent being in athletes younger than 16 years. Males were more likely to have these issues than females at a 1:9 ratio. Almost all sports had SCD reported with soccer (30 percent), basketball (25 percent), and running (15 percent) being the sports with the highest reporting of SCD.
“SCD occurs more frequently in young athletes, even those under the age of 18 years, than expected and is predominantly caused by pre-existing congenital cardiac abnormalities,” the study concludes. “Premature atherosclerotic disease forms another important cause in these young adults.”
Dr. John B. (@DrJohnB) on telegram compared this study with another study, suggesting that from 2021-2022, sudden cardiac deaths in athletes have skyrocketed from 2.4 deaths a month to 46.4 deaths a month.
The 2021-2022 study he is referring to is creating a growing list of athletes who have experienced cardiac arrest or serious issues with the number at the time of this publishing being 1,773 people, 1,229 of whom died since the COVID injection.
While this information is valuable and should be used for research purposes, it is important to note that this study does not limit the age to those between 12 and 35 years as it lists people as young as 5 years and as old as 86 years. We went through the list and counted 551 people who died after receiving the COVID injection who were not in the 12-to-35-year age range. Additionally, another 58 who died did not have an age listed so this number could be higher. After recalculating with a new total of 678 people between the ages of 12 and 35 years who received a COVID vaccine and “died suddenly”, we found the number to be 26.1 people a month. However, again, this number is probably smaller than this as this is without taking into account the 58 people of unknown age. When we take them into account, this number lowers to 23.8 people a month.
Even though 23.8 people between the ages of 12 and 35 years that are dying a month is a lot higher than 2.4 people, we again need to take into consideration how the data was collected. The first article states they are looking at “reported cases in athletes” involved in “competitive sports” between the ages of 12 and 35 years. It is also not mentioned if there is a specific country or countries that they are looking at as they only mention looking at “articles”. The second study is taking a more liberal approach by looking at sudden deaths that have gone unreported, a wider age range, and we do know that they are looking at places around the world as they list the country where each person who died suddenly is from, if it’s available.
Furthermore, an article published October of 2019—six months before the pandemic even began—noted that “more than 350,000 individuals die as a result of sudden cardiac death” every year, averaging out to be 29,166.7 deaths a month. It also noted “it is the most common cause of death in the student-athlete.” The article also claims that a student athlete dies every three days, often of cardiac arrest.
It should be important to note that we’re not saying the vaccines have absolutely nothing to do with anyone dying suddenly and are completely safe, but rather more information is needed and just because someone who was young and seemingly healthy “died suddenly” does not mean the vaccine is the only reason they died.
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