Exercise is not the cause of an underlying heart defect but it can aggravate it, thus leaving the person vulnerable to the possibility of suffering a cardiac arrest during activity. In the event of going into cardiac arrest, receiving a shock from a defibrillator, is their only chance for survival until they can be transported to a hospital. Dedicated GAA players are renowned for their determination to play on through an injury, which begs the question of whether or not they would quit the game if they were told they had a serious heart condition.
In Playing With Heart, producer Sinead Farrellexplores the impact of heart defects on the GAA, uncovers how players react to the notion of stopping in the event of a heart abnormality being discovered and also looks at the measures being taken to prevent fatalities.
The focus of the documentary considers how three GAA players who collapsed on a pitch due to a heart condition, reacted to the news that they now have to refrain from sport. We will experience the physical, emotional and psychological journeys of these players in understanding how they feel about a life without sport in it.
We will also hear the words of the father of a GAA player, who died suddenly after going into cardiac arrest at a GAA training session.
Contributions from cardiologists will reveal their experience of delivering the news that the athlete should step back from sport, while an advanced paramedic details the medial science of a cardiac arrest. The provision of defibrillators at GAA clubs and the availability of people who are sufficiently trained to use them, will also be covered in the documentary.
Playing With Heartis part of the Winter season of Documentary on Newstalk.
CREDITS: Playing With Heart was originally produced as a thesis project as part of the Masters of Journalism course in DCU. It was independently funded. For more information contact: [email protected]
QUOTES FROM Playing With Heart:
One of our managers was like, ‘’Daniel are you alright,’’ and I just wasn’t moving and when they turned me around, my face was purple. I think my heart stopped for between three and four minutes first and then they shocked me. My heart came back to life but then it stopped and for another three minutes and they shocked me again. Daniel James, GAA player from Cork, suffered a cardiac arrest and has been told to stop playing Gaelic Football for a year
It (defibrillator on the premises) had never been used and never needed to be used, thankfully. But just like a car battery or a mobile phone, if it’s not being used it will run down so it had come down to its last blast. If the fireman was doing everything right and grabbed the defibrillator and went to put it on me with no battery in it, I was dead. I only needed the one blast but if I needed anymore, it wasn’t in the defibrillator. Basically I was very lucky. Seaghan Kearney, a former GAA player from Dublin who has followed Doctor’s advice to stop playing.
If you’ve got an underlying heart condition, exercise will increase your risk of dying from the condition by two or three times. Telling someone they should quit playing sport or they should stop trying to get on the first team, can become really difficult. People will sometimes ignore advice, sometimes with parental support and sometimes against their parents’ wishes which can cause a divide in the family and it can cause a lot of strife so it’s a very difficult thing to negotiate. Dr Deirdre Ward, Cardiologist, Cardiac Risk In The Young Centre (CRY), Tallaght, Dublin
I’ve had a number of athletes in whom I’ve I had to stop playing professional sports because maybe in some instances they had a collapse on a field and following my investigations found that they had abnormalities in their arteries. Dr Vincent Maher, Sports Cardiologist, Blackrock Clinic.
All the lads the same age as me are competing and have a serious chance of making the starting 15 that is probably going to go on and win another championship and I just feel like ‘’Why can’t I be there, Why me?’’ Michéal Brady, former GAA player from Co. Longford
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