Terrell, age 14, suffered cardiac arrest due to an undetected dissection of the aorta. Terrell began playing football in the fifth grade. Despite undergoing numerous physicals over the years, an underlying heart condition was never mentioned.

As a child, Danny had a couple of fainting episodes, including one in PE class in grade school. An alert PE teacher demanded that Danny be checked. An examination discovered a heart murmur. Danny was watched and treated for several years by a pediatric cardiologist. In high school, his family was told that Danny could join the swim team and no longer needed to be seen or treated. On August 21, 2007, Danny returned from a long weekend of swimming, sunning and hauling firewood with his fiancé. When Danny did not report for work the next morning, it was discovered that he had died in the night. He was 29 years old.

Janet, age 11, had just started cheering practice and had done some light stretching/warm-ups. The girls were jogging a lap around the football field when Janet told her friend that she was tired and was going to lay down. She went into cardiac arrest and was resuscitated on the field by a pediatric trauma nurse. Janet’s heart stopped several times en route to the hospital. CPR was administered in the ambulance, and Janet was alive and conscious upon arrival to the hospital. She spoke with her parents and was coherent and stable. Her parents were told that Janet would be OK. A short time later, she went into cardiac arrest and could not be revived. Janet’s physical two months earlier had not detected any problems.