Richardson cause of death...

[UK Peregrine]

We're going to continue to see this kind of thing happening throughout college athletics until the NCAA takes a more aggressive stance in examing the physical health of its participants. Again, as I said before, the NCAA does not require a specific examination protocol. Instead, the NCAA prefers to leave physical examination protocols in the hands of each member institution. The result is an array of procedures, protocols, and requirements dependent upon what colleges and/or universities see fit. BG may go above and beyond the current NCAA all of duty to take care of their players (in the case of Lance), however until the NCAA sets a mandate for physical examinations, these sorts of things will continue to occur. Even now, heart examinations are not a requirement, only a recommendation that BG choses to follow. In terms of blood testing, my guess this is quite rare acroos all NCAA athletics, except in te case of suspected HIV. In order to keep tragedies like this from occurring, the NCAA must set rules for physical examination, not make recommendations.

[UK Peregrine]

We're going to continue to see this kind of thing happening throughout college athletics until the NCAA takes a more aggressive stance in examing the physical health of its participants. Again, as I said before, the NCAA does not require a specific examination protocol. Instead, the NCAA prefers to leave physical examination protocols in the hands of each member institution. The result is an array of procedures, protocols, and requirements dependent upon what colleges and/or universities see fit. BG may go above and beyond the current NCAA all of duty to take care of their players (in the case of Lance), however until the NCAA sets a mandate for physical examinations, these sorts of things will continue to occur. Even now, heart examinations are not a requirement, only a recommendation that BG choses to follow. In terms of blood testing, my guess this is quite rare acroos all NCAA athletics, except in te case of suspected HIV. In order to keep tragedies like this from occurring, the NCAA must set rules for physical examination, not make recommendations.

[Warthog]

http://www.cleveland.com/sportsflash/lo ... landsports

[able1]

"Correction--this story has been widely carried, including on WTOL and in the Cleveland Plain Dealer."

Yes, I know it's become widespread official news now. I meant that I had heard unconfirmed discussions about this over the past few days (I believe before the official release), and when I typed that last post, I hadn't watched the news myself to see exactly what they were saying. Thus the reason I said I had heard it in rumor form. I guess I can't win even for being overly careful
Yes, I'm trying to lighten the mood a little, but am finding that hard to do when discussing this subject.

As far as the rules about physicals go, I'm all for them being as thorough as possible, especially now. I don't know how feasible it would be to do bloodwork on at least every first year player, but you would think it would be worth it to make sure this situation doesn't happen again. Obviously this is an extremely rare incident, but still, if you could be 100% sure it wouldn't happen again by doing blood tests, wouldn't you?

I think the university does a great job at protecting athletes health. Why not take one more step. They might, who knows?

[Tech83]

Correction--this story has been widely carried, including on WTOL and in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

I beg to differ. Maybe your hearing about in BG with access to WTOL and find a copy of the Plain Dealer, but anywhere south, this story has not been widely carried. Here in Dayton, it has not been on any of the TV stations (which I would expect) nor has it been in the Dayton Daily News, except for a paragraph that a BG player passed away during practice.

Also, the cause has not been announced on the University website - only his passing and funeral arrangements.

My only news source in the official Falcon website and any links you kind folks post here

So please, continue to give the links and help a friend out.

[jacojdm]

while it may be true that a more "in depth" physical might have deteceted the sickle cell disease, one can't expect every single ncaa team to test every single athlete for most every possible disease or abnormaility. to a great degree, we are all responsible for our own health and well being, especially in cases of highly prevalent diseases. for example, men routinely have tests for prostate cancer, women have pap smears and mammograms, people of jewish descent are frequently tested for tay-sachs, and many african americans and their doctors take the reponsibility to be tested for sickle cell. i'm not making this a race or gender issue, or course, but rather saying that there are certain things for which certain groups of people should exercise due dilligence in testing and diagnosis. now, i'm not sure if aaron had been tested before for sickle cell, but if he had, it obviously hadn't yet totally manifested itself. it can sometimes, tragically, take an incident such as this for a person to realize that they are, in fact, carrying a particular illness. this type of thing could, and does, happen to many people. if aaron hadn't walked on to the football team, this could just as easily occurred while playing basketball at the rec, or even im flag football. this shouldn't be a time to point fingers and blame the ncaa, or the mac, or bgsu for not finding aaron's sickle cell disease, but rather an opportunity to bring to the attention of many the importance of screening and detection for sickle cell.

[Warthog]

The Blade reports today that no one realized Richardson had the diesease. As part of the university's physical exam process, athletes fill out a medical questionaire. One question regarding family history specifically mentions sickle cell anemia. BGSU spokeman Kim McBroom said Mr. Richardson had checked the "no" box on that question. Mr. Richardson's 14-year old half brother was born with sickle cell disease. Over the years, he has had regular blood transfusions and suffered a stroke and "a whole litany of illnesses affected by sickle cell" a family spokesman said. Still, the family did not realize that Aaron had it. he had no symptoms.

I guess it just makes it a little more sad that his family already has been deeply affected by this disease, but for some reason Aaron was never tested for it apparently. It seems to me that a doctor should have suggested it somewhere along the way. Not trying to blame the doctors or anyone. It is just sad that this had to happen.

[frdmgir7]

Warthog,
Wow, I can't believe his half-brother had the disease! That's crazy! Furthermore, I can't believe Aaron never had any symptoms. Usually, sickle cell disease is very painful. When I saw the cause of the news, I was shocked. You are usually born with the disease. I can't believe none of his doctors ever caught it, or even thought to test for it.

[BelieveNBG]

<<but rather saying that there are certain things for which certain groups of people should exercise due dilligence in testing and diagnosis.>>

There is absolutely no reason to have sickle cell testing done unless there are symptoms or a family history of the disease. I am absolutely not buying the whole "due dilligence" theory. If no one in your family history has ever had the disease, there is absolutely no reason to believe you would be a carrier, simply because of your race. If we all had testing based on gender and race, what all would we be tested for? That could be a never ending list of uncovered medical expenses only to find out that your real problem is being paranoid.

[Warthog]

<<but rather saying that there are certain things for which certain groups of people should exercise due dilligence in testing and diagnosis.>>

There is absolutely no reason to have sickle cell testing done unless there are symptoms or a family history of the disease. I am absolutely not buying the whole "due dilligence" theory. If no one in your family history has ever had the disease, there is absolutely no reason to believe you would be a carrier, simply because of your race. If we all had testing based on gender and race, what all would we be tested for? That could be a never ending list of uncovered medical expenses only to find out that your real problem is being paranoid.

But his half-brother has had all kinds of complications do to sickle cell disease. Shouldn't that have warrented Aaron being tested sometime???

[factman]

Honestly, I get a little tired of anyone who is looking to "point a finger", for someone who was at fault, especially someone not involved in the medical process.

[BelieveNBG]

with the family history theory, but that post specifically suggested sickle cell testing be done based on race alone. That post was also prior to your post about the family history.

[Warthog]

Honestly, I get a little tired of anyone who is looking to "point a finger", for someone who was at fault, especially someone not involved in the medical process.

Whose pointing any fingers? I am just asking questions. Hoping that by asking questions, a tragedy like this doesn't have to happen again. By no means am I asking that all players have blood tests. Or that African-american players only have blood tests or anything like that. Just trying to get the best possible care that our young people deserve. Trying to find some "lessons learned" from all this, not point any fingers.

[TG1996]

with the family history theory, but that post specifically suggested sickle cell testing be done based on race alone. That post was also prior to your post about the family history.

how can you possibly have issue with that? while I don't know if this disease is something that shows up later in your life, or if you get tested at birth and don't have it, you're "clean", but it is specific to this RACE. Why shouldn't it be tested based on race alone? Also in reference to the post, do you think that females shouldn't get their checkups because only females have ovaries? or that middle-aged men shouldn't get prostate exams just because they're men, even though that is the prime time for men to develop problems?

Being a non-med student, and not African American, I don't know the attention finding sickle cell disease takes, or if it could have even been diagnosed in this case anyway, but I'd bet anything that each and every parent out there would rather pay for a lifetime of "uncovered medical expenses" than to pay for one funeral.

[orangeandbrown]

At least today, Ohio law requires screening at birth for sickle cell anemia.

http://www.odh.state.oh.us/ODHPrograms/ ... disord.pdf