The calendar changing to August means many things for hockey fans. Fans are looking at the schedule plotting out what games of their favorite team they will attend. Players are returning to the gym and rink for conditioning and tryout skates for the upcoming season. Unfortunately for one team in Quebec, it would lead to the death of a new teammate.
The 16 year-old was skating during an individual training session when he suffered a discomfort and collapsed on the ice. The Acadie-Bathurst Titan medical team tried to revive him several times. The young player was transported to hospital where his death was confirmed by a doctor.- The team posted on their Facebook page
Acadie-Bathurst Titan of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League suffered a tragic loss Monday afternoon when Jordan Boyd collapsed on the ice during skating drills with the team. The clubs medical personnel tried to revive him several times and Boyd was taken to a New Brunswick hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Boyd, 16, was a fourth-round pick in the 2013 QMJHL entry draft. Boyd had undergone a complete medical evaluation prior to rookie camp that did not indicate any issues, and that it is waiting for an autopsy to determine the cause of his death.
The team has also said out of respect for his family and their privacy, they will not comment on the incident until further notice. They cancelled the rest of training for Monday and plan to return to the ice Tuesday.
Boyd isn’t the first teenage athlete who collapsed and died while on the field. Most of them appeared healthy at the time even after taking a standard medical physical. Like many others across the country, Beaumont Hospitals in Michigan has developed a leading heart check targeted for teenage athletes. The Healthy Heart Check program is to help detect young people who are at risk for sudden cardiac arrest. They provide free heart checks to high school students that includes an electrocardiogram (ECG), echo-cardiogram, and blood pressure screenings.
Since the Healthy Heart Check program began in May 2007 they have reported:
- 8,965 kids in Michigan have been screened
- 820 needed some sort of follow up with a doctor
- 54 were advised to stop sports until they follow up with a cardiologist
- 4 have been found with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the most serious of all heart issues we are trying to detect
