More than 30 years after Boston Celtics star Reggie Lewis died of a sudden cardiac arrest during an off-season practice, cardiac deaths in athletes remain frustratingly unpredictable. While Massachusetts law requires automatic portable defibrillators, or AEDs, in schools and health clubs, they aren’t mandated at all sporting events, which can be the biggest difference between resuscitation and tragedy for young athletes.
“My husband noticed that Preston was laying on the ground and nobody was attending to him,” said physician Dr. Lisa Owens, whose 15-year-old son Preston Settles suffered cardiac arrest in 2022 while playing in a basketball game. “So we ran around from the other side of the court and he was having activity that appeared as if he were having a seizure.”
An AED was eventually located, but by then, it was too late. It took doctors nearly 40 minutes to restart Preston’s heart, and after 22 days on life support, he died from undiagnosed hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
“My ‘mom brain’ never considered that he’s in cardiac arrest, because he’s my 15-year-old son who was just playing basketball, who I’d spoken to the night before,” Owens said.
Nearly four years later, Owens and her husband, Daryl Settles, are turning to legislation to ensure all athletes receive immediate treatment for sudden cardiac events. If passed, The Preston Settles ‘Every Minute Counts’ Act would require AEDs at all Massachusetts athletic events, games and practices, as well as at least one person trained to provide AED and CPR treatments.
“It’s so sad hearing Preston’s story, because oftentimes, especially in the youth, it’s on the playing field that sudden cardiac arrest manifests,” said Dr. Kemar Brown, an advanced heart failure and transplant cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Whether it’s due to a preexisting genetic condition or an in-game accident, Brown highlights the importance of acting quickly during a cardiac event. Though only one in 10 people end up living through out-of-hospital cardiac arrests, measures such as learning CPR — which Massachusetts doesn’t require for high school graduation — can drastically increase the likelihood of saving an athlete’s life.
“The common mantra in our field is ‘time is brain, and time is heart,’” said Brown. “And as time lapses when a patient is having a cardiac arrest, the brain tissue ultimately starts to die and the heart tissue starts to die.”
Working alongside the Settles family is state Rep. Russell Holmes, who represents the 6th Suffolk District and introduced the ‘Every Minute Counts’ Act in 2023. Though there remain concerns about the cost of purchasing AEDs for the entire state, Holmes remains optimistic about getting the bill through the Massachusetts Senate.
“This should just be the cost of doing business,” Holmes said. “If you want to have athletic programs, this is the natural fit for what is needed on this playing field to make sure everyone is safe.”
Guests
- Dr. Lisa Owens, internal medicine doctor, mother of Preston Settles, co-chair of the Preston Settles Memorial Fund
- Representative Russell Holmes, representing Massachusetts’ Sixth Suffolk District
- Dr. Kemar Brown, advanced heart failure cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and an instructor at Harvard Medical School
