Speak and he's eighteen years old, or reminds us of course, and what
happened with tomorrow Hamlin and with summer conditioning underway, with temperatures in the upper
nineties, no person, no person in the history of our community. It
is better positioned to talk about conditioning and what to do, what not to
do as apparent what can you stop what can't you stop? Than Doctor Timothy
Kremchek and Doc Hollywood. Welcome again to the Bill Cunningham Show. And Doc,
first of all, can you explain to the American people what is cardiac
arrest? Well, there's a whole lot of different definitions or cardiac arrest,
but the bottom line is is when the heart is unable to pump enough blood
to the rest of the body, whether it be the brains or the major
organs, and it just can't do it, and so it goes into it
just stops working, It stops beating, you know, consistently, goes into
what we call it with me, is so the heart just stops working properly,
and then it becomes a huge problem when you lose that blood supply to
the brain and you know, the other major organs, and so you know,
we we think that people having heart attacks and their seventies, eighties and
nineties, what have you, coronary arter disease from smoking or eating habits.
It becomes a real problem when we've got our eighteen year old kids or as
uh you know DeMar Hamlin love we saw last year it gets hit in the
chest, and you know, it brings a huge awareness to all of us
that have kids and grandkids and that are out there playing sports and wondering is
this safe? Why is this becoming more common? You know, how do
we prevent it? Or can we prevent it? Or how do we diagnose
it? So you know, it's it's becoming a major problem. Well,
one brings to mind what happened with COVID nineteen, and that is, uh,
you're like a dock and you've spent your life in it. But I
believe that Damar Hamlin and I believe Lebron James Jr. Both had COVID nineteen
shots. And I've had one or two friends who have had cardiac unuse,
your cardiac conditions having and they were vaccinated. Is there any desire by medical
authorities to do copious research as to whether COVID nineteen or the vaccine is causing
more of these events? Or can I even ask the question without being put
down one? No, No, I think there's there's no question. I
think there's still a lot of questions about number one, what does COVID do?
What is it due to your body? And number two what are the
vaccines do? There is there are some opposing opinions. I think research is
being done. The question is, you know, is the booster shot as
the COVID shot? Can it cause more problems than it can help you?
Is the COVID once you get it, can it cause this problem? We
all know that car problems, you can't get cardiac in long pulmonary problems from
COVID, and or we think the booster. But in these particular cases,
I will tell you that when the barn Hamlin got hurt, he actually got
got hit right in the chest. And it's a very very known entity.
When you get hit in the chest and all of a sudden your card goes
into an arrhythmi, it's called blanket on it. Now the commoo cordis in
other words, you've seen and I've seen baseball players you get hit in the
chest. A picture that the ball gets battered and he get hit in the
chest and you go into cardiac arrest. In his particular case, it was
a traumatic event that can happen in any sport at any time. I think
when we're talking about somebody like Bronnie James, there are entities and we see
these and basketball players, tall thin kids that can have what we call cardiac
myopathy or and these are these are congenital problems that you really cannot diagnose to
a routine physical examination. And what happens is their heart is just congenerally thick
and so it can't pump Once you start really exercising a lot, you cannot
it cannot pumping up blood out. And why did it happen? Now?
Who knows? Is it related to COVID? Who knows? The big question
now is that parents are going to ask as my child's safe. And you
know, when you do your routine physical exams for these kids going on to
play sports and say high school, the routine the exam doesn't it rarely ever
picks up any of these problems. Ye, doc, I can recall when
we played there was none of this. And I'm watching CNN this morning with
this cardiologist from U see who's an expert on this. He was one of
the treating docs Tomorrow Hamlin, and the question was asked, right now,
it's like ninety eight degrees. Kids are running around getting ready for soccer and
football, and girls are running around with soccer and they're getting ready. And
I know you do more work with high schools than any doc the history of
Cincinnati. And when you say we don't you can't test, am I right
to say you can't test for this? Well, yes and no the routine
examination listen to the heart and lungs, you cannot. And some people have
talked about getting EKGs. Most of the time, you know, with a
electric cardiogram, most of the time the electric cardiogram doesn't show anything. But
there have been people that if you have any type of thought or history taught
the mar Fan type, tall thin kids that you know might be the prototypical
type that have a congenital heart problem. We recommend getting echo cardiograms, which
can see the size of the heart and the thickness of the muscular chure in
the heart. And so any parent that has a child that's going to play
a sport and if their primary care doctor says yeah, maybe it's not a
bad idea family history of how you're built. Maybe you want to go get
this echo cardiogram, or even if you just want to be extra safe,
you can get an echo cardiogram, which which can show you a lot of
these especially congenital problems, but there are other things that happened too. I
think that you've got to wonder a lot of these kids are taking supplements,
creatine all of these things and boost energy. Those are the things I wonder
about. You know, kids that get dehydrated and they go out this hot
sun and their hearts got to beat. You know, it's one hundred and
eighty beats a minute. It's crazy. And so now you're taking supplements and
help you, you know, stay a little bit, uh, you know,
you get your energy level going. And there's a gazillion of them out
there. My question is what are those What are those do to the heart?
What are those doing? Combination with somebody that might have had a COVID
booster, what do those do? And somebody that might have some kind of
family history. So I think my advice to any parent whose child is going
to go play a sport is to know, again, we do examinations on
all the kids prior to them playing. But go to your primary doctor,
you're pediatrician, why don't you and go get worked up and they'll do it
for you. And I think it's a responsible thing to do for your kids.
So if you add multiple factors, I know from previous discussions I've had
with you on other issues, that is one thing leads to the other,
that leads to the other, the leads to the other. So if some
kid is working out in LEBRONI James case, it was like it was like
ninety four degrees and he was outside and he just passed out. I think
a Hank Gathers who played for Liola Marymont who played in the Gardens. I
think his running mate was a guy named Kimball something or other and he just
on the court itself, lost consciousness and died. And they did not know
at that point about what to do. If you take a kid who is
trying to make a team in its ninety eight degrees, you have a culture
in which the exam by the physicians were not cardiac related. Add on top
of that, maybe creatine or other growth and hormone supplements which young kids take
all the time, and add on top of out a family history, a
bottom boone bottom bang bottom bank. That's the kid, male or female that
needs to have this echo done. Is that correct? Absolutely? And again
go back and look at you you're you're right. I think it's being sensationalized
now and that's great because it's bringing the awareness. But go back and look
at some of the NBA players that have passed on at early right. These
are tall, thin guys, that's the prototypical. They might have some cardiac
abnormality. I mean I remember a number a couple of the Boston Celtics,
you know, they had they had just in the summertime, they were working
out and they died. They found out that they had this this cardiac issue.
And I'm pretty sure that the NBA, now that's a pretty good work
up with these echo cardiograms to make sure none of these players have it so
this doesn't happen, or at least they're aware of it. So I think
your awareness is number one and two. If you have any questions, as
you just said, I mean we're talking about you know, stimulants, COVID
family history, the way you're built, You talk to your doc and go
get worked up to give you some peace of mind. I mean I've had
patience of mind. I've had big kids that we're nineteen years old. I
know that where colleges had died and they did an autopsy. No nineteen year
old should ever die, and so all of a sudden, you know they've
got this cardiac abnimality. They played college football, they played sports all their
lives, they never had a problem, and boom, it just happens.
So again, the awareness, it's unfortunate, Debrouni. Fortunately he's fine.
They'll do a complete work up on him to find out exactly why this happened.
And there's a lot of reasons and things that can go on with the
heartness to why and then decide if it's safe for him to go back and
play basketball to that level again. But again, I think the awareness in
the shock that people get when they see an eighteen year old kid have a
cardiac arrest. You know, maybe that'll help somebody else and it will save
their life if you know, they get worked up and they get diagnosed and
bingo, they can treat it well. Lastly, doctor Timothy Kremcheck, the
ae eds were available at USC because they had a kid last year with exactly
the same thing that occurred, and the AEED was available. If ten minutes
go by, fifteen minutes go by and there's no restarting of the heart,
that's not a recoverable event. No usually organs in the brain, and you
get to that far out without oxygen, it becomes irreversible. But again,
that's the reason about trainers. That's the reason we have trainers at our high
schools. That's the reason they're all trained on ae D. That's why they're
all in the field at all sports men's and women's And you know, these
these can be lifesavers. And you know we've got these athletes that are playing.
But he did for people in the Spans, coaches, anybody around.
I mean, gend the ad has been an unbelievable resource to help help people
with these problems. I mean, it happens in restaurants, it happens everywhere.
And I think the other advice I would give is, if you've got
family members that are maybe a little bit older or you've not even that,
learn and have an ae ED if you've got one available, know how to
use it. Do we know why boys? Do we know why boys?
According to the experts, boys are more affected than girls, and blacks are
more effected than whites. Do we and youth is more effective than older folks?
Do we know? Why? Well? I guess youth. I mean
obviously, you know older folks would have more wear and tear in their hearts
to coronary arteries. To me, that makes more sense. Why men and
women and black or white? I really don't know. I don't know.
I don't have the answer to that. But you would say that right now,
conditioning is happening. It's the it's the end of July, and I
think football starts. I think high school football probably has already began, and
high school soccers began that you must have an aeed available because it's almost like
ten to twelve minutes is too late. But more important, most importantly,
gotta know how to operate them. Are those difficult to learn? Yeah,
no, it's very simple, and the coaches should learn how to use it.
They I don't know where it is, you know, I don't know
how many times you hear where is it? I don't know where it is.
I mean, people need to be aware of the trainers. The administrators
of the schools needn't make sure the coaches now, and you're right, it's
gonna be hot. It's it's gonna be ninety seven degrees I hear tomorrow.
And these kids should not be running out to get dehydrated. They take these
stimulants, they get dehydrated, all sorts of things can happen, as far
as muscle injuries, muscle cramps. I mean, you hear this. These
these people that you know, the dehydration I think is a huge problem and
can also lead to cardiac problems, you know, the heat exhaustion, a
heat stroke, and we talk about this every year. So you know,
our young athletes out there, we've got to protect them. The more we
learn about these things, the more we've got you know, everybody knows how
to protect them, whether it be water breaks and shade times to practice.
You're seeing when they're getting overheated, anybody that might have trouble breathing or having
any type of physical problem, you've got to pull them out and you've got
to take a look at them. So again, this awareness and these things
that happened happen for a reason, and I'm hoping that this opens the eyes
of everybody around to be aware. It's no longer suck it up, be
tough, you know, you know the athletes don't cry or athletes don't stop.
No no, no, no, no, no no no. We've
got to be responsible adults for our kids. And again this phone call being
on the air like this, you know, hopefully people will hear this and
say, okay, what do I have at my school? Or ask the
questions, you know, go to the school, ask the coaches, ask
the trainer, ask the principle. You know, what do we have here
to protect our kids? What do we app in motion here to make sure
that my son or daughter is safe? Again, those questions are great ones
to ask because maybe nobody's asking them and so maybe that will you know,
save a life. Well maybe right now, I mean check out with the
ad. You go to the principal, talk to a board of education member
in your school saying do we have training? I know when I played,
it was a matter of weakness to drink water. If you had water breaks,
it was like something's wrong. You got a tough en up man.
That's not the way the world works today. Well, you know what I'll
tell you. I'll tell you you think that we've learned, but you know
you've got these Now you read the newspaper, you find these college coaches,
the harassment, the hazing, the things that are going on there are so
unhealthy and so unnecessary and irresponsible. And again it's the same one. Tough
guys don't need water, you know, I mean, yeah, break and
well that's just stupid. So again, as a parent, go to your
school, ask the question, Ask the trainers, find out, make everybody
aware and look, there's no harm in that. And there's a peace of
mind knowing that everybody eats on the same page. If somebody gets you know,
hurt, injured, repeat, exhaustion, what have you asthmatic attacks,
beast things. I mean, all these things happen to our athletes out there.
But we've got to protect our kids. And you know, you said,
I've been out there and I take care of high schools. I've been
doing it forever, and I've seen almost everything that can happen on the field,
and it's you know, some of them are tragic. But the more
awareness that we have and more responsible we are as schools and parents and coaches,
trainers, the better these kids do, the safer it is for them
to play. And that makes me proud that I'm part of all this.
Doctor Timothy Cremcheck, you're the best of what you do. And thank you
again for coming on the Bill Cunningham Show. God bless you, Thank you
all right, buddy, thank you. Forewarned is forearmed as a parent to
involve now on seven hundred WLW. Hey are you drowning in credit card debt?
You want to get cash out of your home Zech