School Physicals prior to Sports

Eighth-grade student dies trying out for basketball team - KCTV 5

Another life gone before their time. It happens everyday but does it have to? Some people could chalk it up to a standard part of life, but why is pre-mature death a standard part of anything? An eighth grade student who died trying out for the basketball team caught my eye this time. She passed a "sports physical" prior to tryouts. For those who don't know, not every state requires sports physicals (however, I think they should) but are they enough? A sport physical, defined by one source, as a medical history and a physical exam. A history on pre-teens would surely be beneficial right? Well only if the problem is a family history sort of problem. Otherwise, a young child may not have experienced any problems to date. So the medical history is designed to pinpoint youths "at risk" or ones who have "asthma" or another chronic condition. Useful? Not as much as it should be. How many times do you think a doctor has said, "I'm sorry, your father had a heart condition, maybe we should do more tests, or I don't think you should play sports"? Of course not, that would be discrimination in our society.

How about the physical exam? We're going to take your heart rate, listen for a murmur, check your lungs. Do we TEST them? No. Do we make them have a stress test? No. Why? Time. Money. Convincing the parents. Tell a family who's child has died that with a few extra minutes out of someone's day, maybe their death could have been prevented. Maybe if we'd just spent a few dollars in health care costs, we could have saved you years of grief. How do you convince a parent that "is for your child's safety" when parents feel like "well it won't happen to me". Ask the parents who've lost a child how they feel now.

Perhaps I'm biased. Our healthcare costs are sky rocketing out of control, but we are the freaking United States of America. Can we not prevent any of these deaths? Can we not do Xrays? we order them for everything else under the sun. Why can't we do more?