More kids surviving blows to chest during baseball, other sports

[St. Paul Pioneer Press, March 11, 2010] It's parents' worst nightmare — watching children collapse from ill-timed baseballs or pucks that strike their chests and shut down their hearts.

Since this phenomenon was identified 15 years ago, a Minneapolis registry has collected information on 224 U.S. cases — most of which resulted in the deaths of healthy children or teens.

But the keeper of the registry, Dr. Barry Maron of the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, had good news to share Wednesday. Between 2006 and 2009, more children survived such cardiac episodes than died from them.

Read more at twincities.com.