Study aims to prevent deadly sport injury in young athletes

Commotio cordis, a rare sudden-death cardiac event, most commonly affects young children playing baseball (Pixabay). At an Arizona baseball diamond 10 years ago, a 13-year-old baseball player turned to bunt a ball that instead struck his chest. Taking two steps towards first base, he collapsed, and died from commotio cordis, the second leading cause of sudden cardiac death in young athletes. It's an outcome Grant Dickey, a PhD candidate in biomedical engineering, is hoping to change. Dickey recently published findings from his master's research that provides new metrics for testing baseball chest protectors and identifies the most vulnerable impact locations over the chest that may result in commotio cordis. Rare but fatal "Commotio cordis is very rare, but when it happens, it's very often fatal," Dickey said. "You can imagine the impact on the players and the families in these situations.