SADS stigma highlighted

There is a potential stigma being attached to sports and Sudden Adult Death Syndrome (SADs) even though most such deaths are not sports related, a leading cardiologist said today.

“It’s not just a sports problem, in 85 per cent of young people under 35 who died suddenly in Ireland it was nothing to do with sports,” Dr Joe Galvin consultant cardiologist at the Mater Hospital said.

A strategy which purely focuses on sports “is going to miss a lot of sudden deaths,” he said at a memorial attended by around eight families of SADs victims. This was inappropriate because sports is hugely beneficial to health, he said.

The Cormac Trust presented a cheque of €30,000 to the Mater Hospital’s screening clinic for relatives of the young people who suddenly and unexpectedly died. It  was founded after the sudden death of Tyrone footballer Cormac McAnallen in 2004.

His mother Bridget said the trust was donating the money because it was absolutely vital for people to be screened.

“Every member of a family from whom someone has died has a 50-50 chance of having the same condition and also of dying,” Mrs McAnallen said.

The Government had not provided any money for the service, she said. “I don’t think it has dawned on the Government to date that this is such an important issue,” she said.

Almost 900 immediate relatives of SADs victims have been screened at the Mater’s specialised screening clinic since 2007.

The screening seeks clues in families for what may have caused the sudden and unexpected deaths, said Mr Galvin said.

“In 15 per cent to 20 per cent of families we will find some clue or some cause,” he said. “We will risk stratify other families and see what risk they are of the same thing happening to them."

The likelihood of a patient in shock surviving a cardiac arrest had more than trebled in recent years due to a Dublin Fire Brigade initiative, he said.