CT lawmakers approve heart screenings for student-athletes. One father says more needs to be done
Connecticut lawmakers voted on Friday night to require a heart screening for students who play sports. But one local father thinks they need to do more.
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Connecticut students may soon need a clean bill of heart health to play sports.
State lawmakers voted on Friday night to require cardiac screening for all student-athletes beginning in the fall of 2027.
One local father fought for the new law, but he doesn't think it goes far enough.
“HE HAD NO SIGNS”
Even from an early age, Artie DiRocco knew his son was a gifted athlete. What he didn’t know was that George would never live to see his 17th birthday.
“My otherwise perfectly healthy, 16-year-old, three-sport athlete son, at a friend's house in their backyard, suffered cardiac arrest and passed away,” DiRocco said. “I didn’t realize that my child had a heart condition. He had no signs.”
DiRocco played football and baseball at Wilton High School. But in 2020, he died suddenly from a heart condition that was never detected.
“Who thinks, ‘Oh, my perfectly healthy child has a heart condition? I should get an EKG,’” his father asked.
DiRocco wants to make sure no other parent misses the signs. He now works with In a Heartbeat, a nonprofit that provides students free electrocardiograms, also called ECGs or EKGs.
“If we screen 200 kids and we find nothing, that’s 200 parents that should be able to sleep better at night,” he said.
EKGs FOR STUDENT-ATHLETES?
The bill headed for Gov. Ned Lamont's desk requires all student-athletes to get a health assessment including "a physical exam that screens for serious cardiac conditions that could lead to sudden death.”
But DiRocco wanted to go further.
He supported legislation requiring players in “high-intensity” sports like football, basketball or hockey – with a family history of heart issues – to get an EKG too.
“Kids go for annual physicals,” said In A Heartbeat founder Mike Papale, who survived a surprise heart attack in high school. “They go for sports physicals, and that usually does not include an EKG.”
OPPOSITION FROM COACHES AND DOCTORS
But DiRocco ran into opposition from a surprising group – coaches and cardiologists. They said the proposal was both unnecessary and confusing.
“The Connecticut State Department of Education currently requires completion of a Health Assessment Record (HAR), commonly known as the ‘Blue Form,’ before any student may participate in interscholastic athletics,” Connecticut High School Coaches Association executive director Leonard Corto told lawmakers. “Rather than establishing a separate process to collect additional health information, the more practical and effective approach would be to amend the existing Health Assessment Record to incorporate any new cardiac screening requirements.”
A top cardiologist said the current system works – and that an EKG should not be the first step.
“We’re never going to catch everybody, but we can catch a lot of people,” said Dr. Rachel Lampert with Yale School of Medicine.
“The requirement of EKGs for all student athletes for any ‘yes’ on the [family history] form doesn’t provide the highest quality medical care. An ECG is very often the next step, but there may be other important aspects of the work-up.”
After hearing from doctors, lawmakers removed the EKG requirement.
Meantime, Artie DiRocco said he won’t stop fighting for more screening.
“It’s what he would have chosen to do,” DiRocco said. “It takes a tragedy for people to care.”
