Colorado Teen Dies After Hit on Rugby Field

March 6, 2011— -- The sudden deaths of two high school athletes this week have parents and support groups working to prevent further tragedies.

Matthew Hammerdorfer, a 17-year-old from Larimer County, Colo., took a powerful hit to the chest during a rugby game Saturday and collapsed on the field. He was airlifted to a hospital where he died.

The young man's death was caused by a condition called "sudden cardiac death," and experts say it happens far too often to young athletes in the prime of their lives.

An autopsy today found the cause of Hammerdorfer's death was cardiomegaly and biventricular hypertrophy, which refers to an enlarged heart and enlarged ventricles.

It is estimated that one in every 350 children may have dangerous underlying heart conditions.

"Athletes are at higher risk than the general population because they exercise more," Dr. Jonathan Drezner of the University of Washington said.

"And ironically, although we know that exercise is a healthy benefit for all of us, in some persons with an underlying heart condition exercise can actually be the trigger for a sudden cardiac arrest event," he said.

Hammerdorfer's death comes just days after Michigan high school basketball player Wes Leonard collapsed and died after scoring the winning shot for his team, leaving his coach, team and the community devastated.

Teenagers and young people dying of heart failure is far more common than might be expected: An average of 40 young athletes die from heart disease in the United States is per year, or approximately one death every nine days.

Parent Heart Watch is one support group that is trying to encourage awareness and preventative measures that will avert such tragedies. They say young athletes should get early and mandatory screening with an Electrocardiograph (EKG), which looks at the activity of the heart over time.