“80% of sudden deaths can be prevented with proper medical diagnosis.”

“My goal as a sports medicine doctor is to prevent the death of athletes during physical exercise,” he explains, before emphasizing that investment in quality medical examination is essential and necessary to avoid “a tragic event like death.” ”

“If what happened to my son can help to make the regulation and detection of young kids who play football more widespread, then a part of me will be happy,” Sebas’s mother, Kerana Ivanova, said yesterday. In relation to the medical examination of those who died in Xaraton, she further stated that “As the mother of a child who just died, I would like to emphasize that when our children come to play on the football team the annual medical Go into the test, maybe “We should invest a little more than five euros in this.”

Raquel Blasco, in this sense, highlights three essential tasks that cannot be missing in a thorough medical examination of any athlete, regardless of his discipline: “There must be a thorough physical examination, as detailed as possible in The focus should be on what can kill – the cardiorespiratory zone –; a thorough interview about the pathology, possible hereditary diseases and personal and family history that might lead you to suspect that the person may have a certain pathology; and, Necessary, something that Zartan’s child did not have, was a twelve-lead electrocardiogram.

Raquel Blasco admits, “Given that there is no uniformity in sports recognition, there are very few requirements for young people practicing school sports to sign federation forms.” An action, that of signing the said federal form, which has been done “on countless occasions as an administrative act” when, in his opinion, “it should never have happened.”

“It’s not signing a paper. This signature recognizes that a thorough examination has previously been performed which allows the doctor to be as sure as possible that nothing serious is going to happen during physical effort. The doctor in charge must have the necessary skills to certify it with professional rigor,” Blasko explains of how the medical examinations of boys and girls practicing sports are carried out.

“With a thorough medical examination we save up to 80% of the chances,” he explains, adding that once the examination is done, an evaluation is necessary: ​​“If everything is correct, the federation form is signed, but if If there is something that makes us suspect a possible pathology, whether it is an electrocardiogram or a clinical or hereditary history, testing should continue,” Blasko proposes.

Sudden death of an athlete is “a death that is preceded by fainting or dizziness in 25% of cases.” The problem occurs in the remaining cases, “which do not fall into that minimum 25%, but which could be prevented, mainly, with a complete medical examination in which the electrocardiogram should be mandatory, since the stress test is not a medical examination when Unless you have an electrocardiogram. And then, he says, “comes secondary prevention in which two things must be clear: medicine is not an exact science and it can happen with any doctor that despite the necessary tests we do not get the pathology right. Don’t get it.” In that case, he explains, “we can help the person with a defibrillator, because all sudden deaths are caused by ventricular fibrillation, in which the heart beats but the heartbeat is ineffective. But to eliminate ventricular fibrillation, a defibrillator is necessary,” explains Raquel, who fights through all her jobs so that each venue where sporting activities take place has a defibrillator.

Since the death of Antonio Puerta

Since the death of Antonio Puerta due to cardiorespiratory arrest during a match between Sevilla and Getafe on August 25, 2007, all professional football grounds have a mandatory defibrillator on the field. Raquel admits, “It is essential to have a device with these characteristics in sports facilities that have more than 500 daily users, but unfortunately many football grounds do not have one, although I know first-hand that this Zeraton team Had it.” Blasko..

“A defibrillator costs 700 euros. But what is the cost of training five or six people of the sports club that all the teams should meet. It’s a case of selling bracelets or key chains and holding a ham raffle and there you have it. Something so simple can save many lives,” the sports medicine doctor advises. Raquel Blasko concluded her talk with a message of peace as well as responsibility: “80% of sudden deaths in athletes can be prevented thanks to correct medical examinations.”