George Boiardi was a healthy college student. He was a senior history major at Cornell University and a co-captain of the lacrosse team. However, on March 17, he was pronounced dead at Cayuga Medical Center in New York.
Boiardi was not stabbed, shot or suffocated. He was hit in the chest by a lacrosse ball during a game against Binghamton. With less than three minutes left in the game and Cornell leading, Binghamton player Nate Kerstein shoot the ball towards the goal when it hit Boiardi in the chest, causing him to collapse to the turf. Doctors pronounced him dead by the end of the day.
The official cause of Boiardi's death is thought to be commotio cordis. The Cornell Daily Sun reported, however, that Boiardi's family is choosing not to have an autopsy performed on the body. Yet, the lack of other medical conditions and the speed at which Boiardi died point towards this medical phenomenon.
There have been at least 128 confirmed cases of commotio cordis, which is defined in an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) as sudden cardiac death caused by a blunt, non penetrating blow to the chest. The most important factor in attributing a death to commotio cordis is ruling out structural damage to the ribs, lungs and heart, as well as internal bleeding or congenital cardiovascular abnormalities.
The 2002 JAMA article studying commotio cordis found that most cases are in males under the age of 18. This is not necessarily due to their physiology, however, and could just be due to the fact that they are the segment of the population which is most exposed to the high-impact sports associated with commotio cordis.
Of the 128 cases of commotio cordis studied, 79 of them happened during organized sporting events. Baseball provides the greatest risk for the type of impact which leads to death. However, cases have also been reported in softball, lacrosse, hockey or football.
Until recently, the medical cause of sudden deaths such as Boiardi's was not known. However, research such as the study in JAMA has began to paint a more complete picture about why these blows to the chest can be so fatal. The key to understanding this is in the electrical patterns of the heart.
The heart undergoes an electrical cycle called the T-wave. A 2003 study by the Tufts University School of Medicine shows that whether a blow to the chest is fatal is determined largely by what part of the T-wave the heart is in when it is hit. When hit 30 to 10 milliseconds before the peak of the T-wave, the chances of fatality are highest. Of all human cases of commotio cordis, about 85 percent are fatal.
There are a few important steps which can be taken in order to prevent cases of commotio cordis at sporting events and to decrease its chances of fatality. The first of these includes having proper safety equipment for all players. According to the study done by researchers at Tufts, 80 percent of chest wall protectors decrease the force of impact of a ball traveling at 30 miles per hour.
If a player is hit by a ball, there should always be an automated external defibrillator (AED) nearby. The Tufts study found that by using an AED within two minutes after impact with a ball, there is a 98 percent chance of survival. However, if the AED is not used until 6 minutes after the impact, this chance of survival is dramatically decreased to 25 percent. Because of this short span of time in which an AED is likely to help, it is imperative that an AED be readily accessible at any sports event.
In a time when young peoples' lives are very centered around athletics, sports injuries are something that greatly affects many youth. With coaches often pushing athletes to compete even when they are injured, players can be forced to such severe injury that they miss games, or even entire seasons.
Injuries and deaths caused by sports are almost always preventable. It means knowing your limits and when to stop, wearing proper protection for whatever sport you are participating and having medical assistance nearby.
In cases where deaths such as Boiardi's are caused suddenly and unexpectedly, communities must deal with the aftermath. Lacrosse players not only at Cornell, but all over the nation have had to come to terms with Boiardi's death and its consequences. What can be taken from it, however, is new preventative measures to stop the occurrence of deaths like his.
