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Post by title1parent on Jun 24, 2008 6:08:21 GMT -5
Athlete collapses on court, dies at 16
By Amie Shak | Daily Herald Staff Published: 6/24/2008 12:05 AM
Zamarri Doby was big, even as a baby. It might be hard to imagine a 6-foot, 5-inch-tall 16-year-old as little, but even as a child his family would laugh because his legs would hang over the end of the crib.
Doby excelled in football and basketball, so it was like any other day when he was playing for the AAU Illinois T-Wolves 16-and-under basketball team Sunday at Plainfield South High School.
The game had just gotten under way, and the team was on the court for about four minutes. They had run up and down the court two or three times when Doby suddenly collapsed, said his aunt, Sharon Doby.
Someone administered CPR, but despite the efforts, he was pronounced dead Sunday at Provena St. Joseph's Medical Center in Joliet.
The family later found that the boy they knew, who would do anything for anybody and who was known for making everyone smile and laugh, died of an enlarged heart.
"They said his heart was two times bigger than what it should have been," Sharon Doby said. "It was nothing they could catch during regular physicals."
Doby would have been a junior at Waubonsie Valley High School in the fall. He had recently obtained his driver's permit and was very excited to start driving.
"There wasn't anything he wouldn't do to help someone or go out of his way," his aunt said. She said her nephew would drop everything to come over to her house and help her with something like moving a television set or to mow his grandmother's lawn.
"He gave his all with everything he did," she said.
Doby's kind-hearted spirit and demeanor will also be missed at his high school.
"This is a tragedy for a 16-year-old to have their life taken away like that," Waubonsie Valley High School varsity basketball coach Steve Weemer said.
"The family is in mourning. … Our hearts and prayers go out to the family during this tough time," he said.
Although the pain of losing Doby is still fresh, his family wants his death to be a wake-up call for others. Without any obvious signs of heart problems, there was no way to tell that this could have happened to him, Sharon Doby said.
"We want to make sure that's it's out there, that they need to test for that kind of thing during sports physicals," she said.
In lieu of flowers, donations to a Zamari Doby fund can be made at the Orchard Road Branch of the Old Second National Bank in Aurora.
"He would want us to remember him having fun and enjoying himself," Sharon Doby said. "Keep us in your prayers."
The family hopes to announce funeral arrangements for Doby today.
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Post by Arch on Jun 24, 2008 8:12:31 GMT -5
Prayers to the family.
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Post by sardines on Jun 24, 2008 8:29:34 GMT -5
Athlete collapses on court, dies at 16 By Amie Shak | Daily Herald Staff Published: 6/24/2008 12:05 AM Zamarri Doby was big, even as a baby. It might be hard to imagine a 6-foot, 5-inch-tall 16-year-old as little, but even as a child his family would laugh because his legs would hang over the end of the crib. Doby excelled in football and basketball, so it was like any other day when he was playing for the AAU Illinois T-Wolves 16-and-under basketball team Sunday at Plainfield South High School. The game had just gotten under way, and the team was on the court for about four minutes. They had run up and down the court two or three times when Doby suddenly collapsed, said his aunt, Sharon Doby. Someone administered CPR, but despite the efforts, he was pronounced dead Sunday at Provena St. Joseph's Medical Center in Joliet. The family later found that the boy they knew, who would do anything for anybody and who was known for making everyone smile and laugh, died of an enlarged heart. "They said his heart was two times bigger than what it should have been," Sharon Doby said. "It was nothing they could catch during regular physicals." Doby would have been a junior at Waubonsie Valley High School in the fall. He had recently obtained his driver's permit and was very excited to start driving. "There wasn't anything he wouldn't do to help someone or go out of his way," his aunt said. She said her nephew would drop everything to come over to her house and help her with something like moving a television set or to mow his grandmother's lawn. "He gave his all with everything he did," she said. Doby's kind-hearted spirit and demeanor will also be missed at his high school. "This is a tragedy for a 16-year-old to have their life taken away like that," Waubonsie Valley High School varsity basketball coach Steve Weemer said. "The family is in mourning. … Our hearts and prayers go out to the family during this tough time," he said. Although the pain of losing Doby is still fresh, his family wants his death to be a wake-up call for others. Without any obvious signs of heart problems, there was no way to tell that this could have happened to him, Sharon Doby said. "We want to make sure that's it's out there, that they need to test for that kind of thing during sports physicals," she said. In lieu of flowers, donations to a Zamari Doby fund can be made at the Orchard Road Branch of the Old Second National Bank in Aurora. "He would want us to remember him having fun and enjoying himself," Sharon Doby said. "Keep us in your prayers." The family hopes to announce funeral arrangements for Doby today. The kids are in shock. Such a tragedy. We are praying for the family. He was like a gentle giant. He will be greatly missed.
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Post by doctorwho on Jun 24, 2008 8:31:07 GMT -5
So very sad to see a young person pass -- and no amount of sports physicals can catch hidden issues sometimes. My thoughts and prayers are with his family as well as his AAU & Warrior teammates.
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Post by sardines on Jun 24, 2008 8:41:51 GMT -5
So very sad to see a young person pass -- and no amount of sports physicals can catch hidden issues sometimes. My thoughts and prayers are with his family as well as his AAU & Warrior teammates. That is very true. It sounds as if a congenital cardiac condition was the cause.He would have needed to have an echo. or random xray minimally to detect it. WV now has two AED's for all athletic events. The Athletic Trainers are trained on how to use them. They can convert someone in atrial fib. to a normal sinus rhythm and/or shock the heart if necessary. Not likely if this would have made a difference in Doby's case but still very important to have access to these for ALL athletic events.
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Post by gatordog on Jun 24, 2008 8:52:52 GMT -5
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Post by gatordog on Jun 24, 2008 8:56:20 GMT -5
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Post by eb204 on Jun 24, 2008 9:03:26 GMT -5
It's alway sad to hear when young lives are cut short. Thoughts and prayers are with this teen's family, teammates and friends.
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Post by doctorwho on Jun 24, 2008 9:14:29 GMT -5
So very sad to see a young person pass -- and no amount of sports physicals can catch hidden issues sometimes. My thoughts and prayers are with his family as well as his AAU & Warrior teammates. That is very true. It sounds as if a congenital cardiac condition was the cause.He would have needed to have an echo. or random xray minimally to detect it. WV now has two AED's for all athletic events. The Athletic Trainers are trained on how to use them. They can convert someone in atrial fib. to a normal sinus rhythm and/or shock the heart if necessary. Not likely if this would have made a difference in Doby's case but still very important to have access to these for ALL athletic events. And the issue here of course is that an echo is $1000 - $2000 and I am fairly positive without some ' cause' to look for it not covered by health insurance - as just a preventative measure. With literally millions of student athletes at different school levels - could schools require this in addition to a sports physical ? Would there be a way to get some reasonable rate seeing how many would be taking the tests ? The fact it strikes usually without previous symptoms gives doctors and families no warning. It appears that an ECG ( about $50) can potentially lead a doc to catch an enlarged heart even before an echo is requried. I am being told that 203 requires this test ( can someone verify ) - if so you may want to inquire about adding to 204 for athletes. Now I also understand that a somewhat enlarged heart also is the sign of a well conditioned athlete - so identity may not be foolproof, but may be a good start. Sometimes the result of a tragedy is more diligence. I know a lot of volleyballclubs now screen for Marfan Syndrome after one nearly lost a coach to it. Much rarer than enlarged heart issues, it is a cardiac condition where one symptom is where kids/athletes have a longer arm span than height- which can be the sign of concern. Thinking VB and BB players, the rarity in the general public increases significantly when you have very tall, rangy athletes in a group.
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Post by title1parent on Jun 25, 2008 6:04:16 GMT -5
Teens' death prompts concerns about heart testing Some schools mandate EKGs
By Barbara Vitello | Daily Herald Staff Published: 6/25/2008 12:07 AM | Updated: 6/25/2008 12:30 AM
Playing basketball shouldn't be a deadly endeavor. Neither should drill team practice, or kickball.
But it was for Zamarri Dody, the Waubonsie Valley High School student who collapsed and died Sunday, four minutes into a basketball game at Plainfield South High School. And it was for 18-year-old St. Charles North High School senior Lauren Laman, who earlier this year collapsed during drill team practice and died of mitral valve prolapse. And it was for 12-year-old Wesley Zamost, a Mundelein resident who suffered an aortic dissection during a kickball game in 2007.
Like the others, 16-year-old Dody succumbed to a previously undetected cardiac condition -- in this case an enlarged heart also known as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or HCM.
An especially insidious disease with few obvious symptoms, HCM causes about one-third of all sudden cardiac deaths, says Dr. Joseph Marek, a clinical cardiologist and the medical director for Young Hearts for Life. Young Hearts is a free cardiac screening program sponsored by the Midwest Heart Foundation, a research and education agency located in Lombard targeted at high school students. According to Marek, another 20 percent of sudden cardiac deaths result from congenital coronary anomaly, a rarely detected condition where an abnormal configuration of the arteries restricts blood flow during times of intense physical activity. Less common causes of death include a ruptured aortic aneurysm, myocarditis and the aforementioned aortic dissection, in which the heart's main artery bursts.
When it comes to these silent killers, electrocardiograms that measure the heart's electrical activity and echocardiograms that use ultrasound to produce an image of the heart offer the best means of detection.
"The EKG (electrocardiogram) is a great screening test," says Marek. "It can detect approximately 90 percent of HCM.
"The definitive test is the Echo (echocardiogram), which is more specific and more certain," he says.
But the EKG, which can be administered by parent volunteers, is the most cost-effective way to screen for undetected problems in youngsters, Marek says. In Italy, which screened all competitive athletes between the ages of 12 and 35 from 1979 to 2004, the annual rate of sudden death in that population dropped by 89 percent over that 25-year period.
In the United States, doctors don't perform such tests on seemingly healthy young people like Doby or 20-year-old, "enviably fit" Max Schewitz of Lake Bluff, who died in 2005 of sudden cardiac arrhythmia.
Cost plays a factor. The price of equipment ranges from $3,000 to $10,000 for an EKG and up to $250,000 for an Echo. An EKG can run a patient between $10 and $35, while an Echo can cost up to $600. That's where Marek's Midwest Heart Foundation and its partner -- The Max Schewitz Foundation, founded by his parents Mary Beth and David -- comes in.
The Midwest Heart Foundation began offering free EKGs to DuPage County high school students in 2006. Since then, it has screened 19,000 people, of which 2 percent showed abnormalities requiring additional testing.
The Schewitz Foundation, in cooperation with the Midwest foundation, screened 2,000 kids at Libertyville and Lake Forest High schools last fall. Twenty-five tests came back abnormal, with two of them indicating life-threatening conditions. In the case of one student, a sibling shared the condition.
"That's three lives that we know of that we altered," says foundation director Mary Beth Schewitz.
"It's like searching for a needle in a haystack," says Marek. "But they're not needles; they're our kids."
Dody's death again has raised the issue of screening young athletes for these potentially life-threatening conditions.
"I'd love to see schools mandate (testing) as a condition to participating in sports," says Schewitz, adding that consumer demand could make such tests standard, like mammograms, prostate exams and screenings for cervical cancer.
To that end, Naperville Unit District 203 leads the charge. Several years ago, the Midwest Heart Foundation began EKG screenings of Naperville North and Naperville Central high school students who had their parents' permission. Beginning this fall, all students, not just athletes, will have been screened, Superintendent Alan Leis says.
Not every district has adopted such a comprehensive approach. Most, including Northwest Suburban High School District 214, the state's second-largest high school district with 13,000 students, relies on mandatory physicals and the completion of the IHSA pre-participation examination form listing medical history.
It's a start. But for some kids, it's not enough.
"Many experts in the field suggest that any student participating in athletics should have an EKG," says Dr. Parag Doshi, a cardiologist at Alexian Brothers Medical Center in Elk Grove Village and head of interventional cardiology at St. Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates.
An EKG that shows abnormalities should be followed by the more thorough Echo, he says. But the first step is a basic checkup that includes a thorough family history and questions the student about chest pain, dizziness, breathing problems or fainting he or she might have experienced.
"Parents need to be mindful if their child experiences these symptoms and not discount them," Marek says. "Upward of 50 percent of victims may have had symptoms. My kids have all had the symptoms, but it's usually when the garbage needs to be taken out."
The sad truth is that once a catastrophic cardiac event begins, there may be little anyone can do to reverse it. Unfortunately, CPR does not work in those cases, Doshi says. But an automatic external defibrillator, which some schools, airports and public facilities have installed, might.
"Every second counts," says Doshi. An AED, which recognizes the fatal cardiac rhythm known as ventricular fibrillation and corrects it, can be used by a lay person to save someone's life.
"It can mean the difference between life and death."
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Post by title1parent on Jun 25, 2008 6:18:16 GMT -5
Services, benefit fund set for Aurora teen who died during game
By Melissa Jenco | Daily Herald Staff Published: 6/24/2008 3:24 PM | Updated: 6/24/2008 5:52 PM
Funeral arrangements have been set for a Waubonsie Valley High School athlete who died over the weekend during a basketball game.
Zamarri Doby, 16, of Aurora, was playing ball Sunday at Plainfield South High School when he collapsed.
Will County Coroner Pat O'Neil said it appears a heart defect caused the teen's death.
Friends and family said Zamarri was known for his love of both basketball and football and for his sense of humor. Viewing for Zamarri will be from 9 to 10 a.m. Saturday at Calvary Church, 9S200 Route 59, Naperville. Funeral services will begin at 10 a.m. at the church. James Funeral Service is handling the arrangements and can be reached at (630) 851-6503.
In lieu of flowers, the family has created the Zamarri Doby Benefit Fund at Old Second National Bank. Donations can be made at any of the bank's locations or mailed to Old Second National Bank, 1230 N. Orchard Road, Aurora, IL. 60506.
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Post by warriorpride on Jun 25, 2008 7:30:49 GMT -5
... To that end, Naperville Unit District 203 leads the charge. Several years ago, the Midwest Heart Foundation began EKG screenings of Naperville North and Naperville Central high school students who had their parents' permission. Beginning this fall, all students, not just athletes, will have been screened, Superintendent Alan Leis says. ... Anyone know how something like this could be pursued for 204?
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Post by stmom on Jun 25, 2008 9:40:50 GMT -5
So what happens we start testing athletes? If an athlete has mitral valve prolapse they can no longer play sports? That would be a shame since the majority mitral valve prolapse defects and many other heart defects are harmless. It would save lives, but it might also result in unfair discrimination.
If testing is mandated, it must remain the athlete's choice whether or not to take the risk, not the school districts.
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Post by warriorpride on Jun 25, 2008 10:04:12 GMT -5
So what happens we start testing athletes? If an athlete has mitral valve prolapse they can no longer play sports? That would be a shame since the majority mitral valve prolapse defects and many other heart defects are harmless. It would save lives, but it might also result in unfair discrimination. If testing is mandated, it must remain the athlete's choice whether or not to take the risk, not the school districts. Agreed - it would be interesting to see what 203's approach is. This does seem like it would be a slipperly slope, as some initial test results might require additional testing to fully analyze the situation. And, I think we all know how insurance companies feel about that.
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Post by doctorwho on Jun 25, 2008 10:38:01 GMT -5
So what happens we start testing athletes? If an athlete has mitral valve prolapse they can no longer play sports? That would be a shame since the majority mitral valve prolapse defects and many other heart defects are harmless. It would save lives, but it might also result in unfair discrimination. If testing is mandated, it must remain the athlete's choice whether or not to take the risk, not the school districts. Agree totally on athlete's choice - that is where it gets sticky. There has to be a process where a waiver of liability can be signed if the athlete/parents decide to continue on. There was an issue at Northwestern a few years ago where a basketball player was diagnosed wit a heart issue and they decided not to let him play - but he could keep his scholarship. He is suing. Go figure. www.law.depaul.edu/students/organizations_journals/student_orgs/lawslj/Volume%201,%20Issue%201/Rice%20Seventh%20Circuit%20Misses%20Jumper.pdf
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