TORONTO – As junior hockey players prepare for tryouts and another season in Halifax, their league is focusing its efforts on the health of these young athletes, hoping to implement and update medical exams for players.
The proposal follows the death of a 16-year-old hockey player from Bedford, N.S.
Jordan Boyd collapsed on the ice last week during a skating drill while training with the Acadie-Bathurst Titans. He died last Monday.
Now, experts weighing in say the tragedy could lead to mandatory cardiac exams, even for these fledgling players.
“We’re looking into our procedures as a league to see what we can do to make them better, for fitness testing, medical evaluations,” said Cam Russell, general manager of the Halifax Mooseheads.
Top junior leagues already conduct medical tests on their players and require doctors to sign off on the results. Even then, there is concern about whether this testing goes far enough.
“The health care system for the team needs to speak to athletes, find out if they have any symptoms related to the heart. Most of these sudden deaths are due to a heart problem,” said Dr. Martin Gardner, a cardiologist at Dalhousie University.
Most young, elite hockey players who suffer heart attacks have no previous symptoms. But others do, and they ignore the signs or fail to acknowledge a family history of heart problems.
At an upcoming league meeting, Russell said cardiac health will be a central topic.
“You can’t always find the issues, but we’re definitely going to look into it and improve it to the best of our abilities,” he told Global News.
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