HARTFORD — A revised bill would adopt new cardiac screening requirements for all Connecticut high school athletes, including possibly mandating electrocardiogram tests in some cases.

This comes after a 16-year-old Holy Cross High School basketball player from Waterbury went into cardiac arrest 10 minutes after a game in February 2025. More recently, a 17-year-old Holy Cross hockey player for a high school co-op team had potential cardiac arrest earlier this month during a practice in Watertown.

The committee made some initial revisions to Senate Bill 194, and more changes are expected.

“I will point out that this bill remains a work in progress for us. We anticipate in conversations a few other changes may need to be made,” said state Rep. Cristin McCarthy Vahey, D-Fairfield, the committee’s House chairwoman.

Rep. Nicole Klarides-Ditria, R-Seymour, the ranking House member and a certified athletic trainer, said she believes more work needs to be done on the question of electrocardiogram (EKG) tests.

The original legislation included a mandate that students get an EKG test and written medical clearance from a qualified health care provider to participate in intramural or interscholastic sports if they report certain cardiac symptoms, or a family history of sudden cardiac arrest or sudden cardiac death.

Klarides-Ditria, head athletic trainer at Lauralton Hall High School in Milford, said the bill should be further revised to leave the decision to undergo an EKG test to health care providers, parents, legal guardians and students to make in consultation with each other.

“We just want to make sure the health care provider, student-athlete and their parent or guardian has the appropriate conversations about cardiac health, and if they determine that further screening is necessary, we want to make sure that does happen,” she said.

An EKG is a simple, noninvasive test that records the electrical signals of the heart to detect cardiac issues, according to the National Institutes of Health. Small electrodes are attached to skin on the arms, legs and chest, and the machine records electrical activity for a few minutes, plotting it as a graph. Test results can help diagnose heart attacks and irregular heartbeats, called arrhythmias, and monitor heart health.

Sen. Saud Anwar, D-South Windsor, Senate chairman of the Public Health Committee and a physician specializing in pulmonary and critical care, applauded the bill’s approval in a statement issued after the committee vote closed at 4:30 p.m.

“In the past, we’ve lost too many student-athletes to heart conditions discovered too late,” he said. “This bill directly counters that.”

One of the revisions made Monday to Senate Bill 194 expanded the requirement for cardiac screening to all students participating in intramural and interscholastic sports. The legislation originally applied to students participating in high-intensity endurance or power sports, which were defined as football, basketball, soccer, hockey, lacrosse and a middle- or long-distance track event.

The Connecticut Association of Schools-Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, the Connecticut Association of Athletic Directors and the Connecticut High School Coaches Association opposed the original bill. The three associations instead proposed working within the cardiac screening framework the state Department of Education has established, and updating the current health screening form for student-athletes to incorporate any new cardiac screening requirements, rather than create a parallel form and process.

They noted the existing form requires parents or guardians to disclose information that includes a history of fainting or blacking out, chest pain, heart problems, high blood pressure, and any relative who has experienced a sudden, unexplained death before age 50. In addition, a licensed medical provider is required to complete a physical examination and determine whether a student may participate fully in athletic activities.

The bill also directs the state Department of Public Health to develop or approve a sudden cardiac arrest awareness education program for local and regional high schools with the CIAC, an athletic trainers association, and national, state or local medical associations. The Department of Education would be required to publish the protocols on its state website.

As proposed, the legislation would take effect for the 2027-28 school year.