Athlete Charles “Chuck” Hughes was born on March 2, 1943. His tragic death left us a legacy we can learn from.
He was a tremendous college football athlete at Texas Western College, now known as University of Texas El Paso (UTEP). He still holds many team records including most all-purpose yards in a single game, 4-1, and most receptions in a single game, 17. In 2006, he was inducted into the UTEP Hall of Fame. The Philadelphia Eagles drafted him into the NFL in 1967. After three seasons he was traded to the Detroit Lions.
On October 24,1971, he was jogging back to the huddle after a routine pass route in which he was not targeted, when he suddenly collapsed on the field. Three plays earlier he had made a clutch 32-yard reception to sustain a Lions’ drive with just minutes left in the game. The Bears’ famed linebacker, Dick Butkus, was first to reach Hughes on the field and urgently alerted the Lions’ bench. Despite attempts at cardiopulmonary resuscitation, he died on the field. The game was finished in complete silence.
He remains the only NFL player to die on the field during a game.
Hughes had a family history of heart disease, and an autopsy disclosed he had severe coronary atherosclerosis and had died of a heart attack. Six weeks before his death, Hughes had been hospitalized due to chest pain after a preseason game. Unfortunately, during that hospital admission the doctors did not discover he had already developed severe coronary atherosclerosis (a blockage of the arteries by plaque build-up). They believed his pain probably came from an enlarged kidney, liver, or spleen, as Les Carpenter reported in December 2013 on Yahoo Sports.
Cardiac Arrests Are More Common as Athletes Age
Sudden cardiac arrests among young competitive athletes generate tremendous alarm, fear, and calls for action in our society. I am grateful for these responses as they raise awareness of rare but potentially fatal heart conditions. They also prompt athletic venues and school systems to have emergency resuscitation equipment immediately available at all events. Fortunately these events are rare among young people.
Unfortunately, cardiac arrests are more common as athletic competitors reach middle age, when age-related heart disease and heart disease risk factors develop. This may have prompted some of the sports writers who discussed Hughes’ heart to say that he had the heart of a 40-year-old man.
Risk of Sudden Cardiac Death Between Ages 35 and 65
The truth is, although more heart events occur in athletes during middle age, we don’t know a lot about these events, and we also don’t know ways to lower the rate or reduce the risk. Fortunately, a recent study by a team of renowned cardiac arrest investigators led by Sumeet Chug, MD, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles has improved our understanding of cardiac death in middle-ages sport participants.
The investigators looked into 1,247 sudden cardiac arrests in middle-aged people (average age 51) and then specifically looked at those that occurred during athletic participation. Nearly two-thirds of the arrests occurred from 6 am to 6 pm; the most common time to arrest was between noon and 6 pm). The two most common seasons for arrests were spring and summer.
The activities during which the arrests occurred were:
- Jogging – 27 percent
- Basketball – 17 percent
- Cycling – 14 percent
- Gym activities – 11 percent
- Golf – 8 percent
- Volleyball, tennis, and soccer – 3 percent each
- Other activities – 14 percent
Among the athletic participants, 16 percent had a prior history of heart disease. Coronary artery disease, such as that found in Hughes, was previously known in 8 percent. Another 5 percent had a history of atrial fibrillation. Risk factors for heart disease were common: 40 percent had a history of high blood pressure, 31 percent a smoking history, and 33 percent high cholesterol.
When the authors looked at all cardiac arrests among middle-aged people, risk factors for heart disease were similar among those who died during athletics and those who did not. However, the athletes were much less likely to have known heart disease or a prior history of heart disease. Sixteen percent of the athletes had a known history of heart disease compared to nearly double, 30 percent, of middle-aged people who had a cardiac event in circumstances other than athletic participation.
Resuscitation of cardiac arrest remains a challenge today, and most people die. Only 23 percent of the middle-aged cardiac arrest victims who arrested during athletic activities lived. This survival rate is better than that for those who arrested during non-athletic activities (14 percent). This is probably due to the fact that someone saw the arrest in 87 percent of people who arrested during sports activity, and possibly performed CPR.
Warning Signs a Week Before Cardiac Arrests During Sports
The most common cause of the heart arrest was severe coronary artery disease similar to what Hughes had. In the Cedars-Sinai study, 84 percent had coronary artery disease. In approximately one-third of the victims, the arrest was from an acute myocardial infarction (heart attack) or a clot that had formed in the coronary arteries. The other two-thirds of the arrest victims had advanced narrowing of the heart arteries, without an acute clot or heart attack.
A very important finding in this study was that nearly two-thirds of those people who arrested during athletic activities had symptoms one week before the event.
The most common symptoms were:
- left-side chest pain
- shortness of breath
- flu-like symptoms
This is similar to what happened to Hughes, who had developed transient chest pain that preceded and warned of the fatal arrest event.
Although women were less likely to have an arrest during athletics than men, the same findings remained important. They often had risk factors of heart disease and symptoms within one week of their arrest.
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SOURCE: T. Jared Bunch, MD, EverydayHealth.com