Duluth Football Player's Death Spotlights Importance of Cardiac Screening

The University of Minnesota Duluth is mourning the loss of 22-year-old football player Reed Ryan who died Tuesday, a week after going into sudden cardiac arrest following a football workout. 

"Reed went into cardiac arrest on November 21st following a football team workout in the weight-room doing what he loved. This was the result of an undetected genetic heart condition and a large, loving heart," the obituary for Ryan reads. "The athletic training team was tremendous in their efforts to immediately initiate CPR and regain his pulse. The ICU hospital staff at St. Mary's-Duluth were amazing in doing everything possible for him."

UMD head coach Curt Wiese said staff and players are devastated by the loss. 

"Reed aspired to be better every day at whatever task was at hand," Weise told Si.com. "He helped bring out the best in others with his positive attitude, infectious smile, and genuine care for the people around him.

"We were fortunate to have Reed on our team, and he made our program, our department, and our community a better place in a short period of time. Reed will be greatly missed, but his legacy will live on forever. He was the epitome of a UMD Bulldog, and what we can all aspire to be. To his family, thank you for allowing us to be part of his inspiring young life. Reed was a Bulldog through and through."

Ryan's death spotlights sudden cardiac arrest. While rare, it remains the most common cause of death in youth athletes. 

Dr. Henri Roukoz, a cardiac electrophysiologist and associate professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota, said the U of M screens athletes like Ryan at a higher level — including through the use of an EKG. However, even that process has limitations, he told KARE 11. 

"The current screening cannot catch 100 percent of these conditions," Roukoz said. "The medical societies are working on a program to try to do randomized trials, to see what tool would be best to screen the most patients possible and catch the most patients possible without going over as far as the cost of screening. And make it practical and make it useable." 

Mike Schoonover, whose 14-year-old son Patrick died after collapsing during a hockey game in 2014, continues to raise awareness about the issue through the Patrick Schoonover Heart Foundation and "Play for Patrick."

The foundation has helped screen thousands of kids ages 14 to 24 over the years.

"Patrick had two undetected heart defects that we didn't know about, so we made it our mission to start the foundation so that we could help families avoid feeling the same feeling that we had of losing a child," Schoonover said. "We have to figure out a way to identify these kids and eliminate this from happening. Because it shouldn't happen."