Life is too short

Uninformed sicknesses and apathetic approaches in being more aggressive to finding out people’s health cases early on has to  be more gingerly, especially to the athletes playing a competitive sport. Perceiving competitive players take an abrupt falling to the ground has to be an abhorrent image to watch.

Who would have thought that an enlarged heart can utterly change someone’s life so drastically? In 2011, I found out that I had Cardiomyopathy which causes weakness in the heart muscle and increases the left ventricle. Stress to your body, artery disease, or just simply working your body harder than it can take are symptoms of an enlarged heart. Basketball had to be removed from my life and stress had to be limited or eliminated completely. As a result, my eyes were opened wide and I had to make sure that I do not trigger anything off.

Canaan Cadwell's father Durey Cadwell

In 2011, my father fainted and was immediately rushed to the hospital where he found out he had Cardiomyopathy. My father, Durey Cadwell, has been having it all of his life but just found out only four years ago. He was a phenomenal basketball player in high school at Port St. Joe High in Florida and at Western Kentucky in college. Without knowing about his heart, Cadwell continued to play without feeling a sign of this heart problem. 

Canaan Cadwell's uncle Damien Byrd  

In 1995, my father lost his younger sister Davida Byrd (my aunt) to an enlarged heart when she was only 17 years old. She had no idea about her heart condition.  My father just recently lost his brother Damien Byrd (my uncle) from a heart attack which was the twin of his younger sister. He had an enlarged heart as well. He refused to stop living his life for the disease. He did not want to stop living due to fear.

Why do we still see so many athletes passing out on the court or field from an enlarged heart? Why are the doctors not documenting heart problems during the required annual physical? Are the doctors omitting an important step of the annual physical?

Loving and playing the game of basketball all of my life, I did not find out about my condition until my sophomore year in high school.  At this point of my life, I am required to go to the cardiologist every 8 months. The physical demands on my body triggers my heart to grow in size is what the doctor tells me. I received EKG’s, echocardiograms and MRI on a regular basis. 

Wes Leonard, a former Michigan high school basketball star, collapsed on the court in 2011 from having an enlarged heart.  "This was a total shock," the family said. "He was 'like a man' and such an athletic boy, in seemingly perfect condition."

Wes Leonard

Too often, heart problems that can cause an irregular heartbeat and sudden death are missed because there is not enough uniform screening of athletes, said Dr. Lori Mosca, director of preventive cardiology at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. There are an estimated of 125 athletes per year who die from enlarged hearts and/or sudden deaths like cancer. Just to name a few; Ryan Shay and Wes Leonard.

Early 2013, David Wilganowski, a high school football star in Bryan, Texas had cardiac arrest in the middle of a football game where his heart completely stopped and gave up on the sidelines. Trainers did their job by doing CPR and AED. Wilganowski is one of the lucky ones for his heart to start pumping again before the paramedics showed up.

David Wilganowski

There were cases where doctors thought it was an enlarged heart but what he had was a genetic Long Q-T syndrome where he receives rapid heartbeats.

In 1993, a young man from Chicago Illinois changed the ESPN atmosphere by bringing his own catchphrases and attitude that people weren’t used to. SportsCenter changed drastically when Scott took off. “Boo-yah!” From that moment on, the entirety of ESPN2 caught on to Scott’s notable sayings that are still said to this day.

January 4, 2015 the inner city Chicago man left this world from a type of cancer that he has been fighting with for years. He was undergoing chemotherapy and fighting cancer for the past seven (7) years. His first emergency appearance happened in 2007 and still never revealed what kind of Cancer it was exactly. In 2013, he was more open to tell the public about his cancer and how he missed work days for chemotherapy treatments where he trained at a mixed-martial arts gym. Fighting through this cancer, like many other athletes, Scott reflected on just being the best dad he can be for his kids.

"Taelor and Sydni, I love you guys more than I will ever be able to express,” said Stuart Scott. “You two are my heartbeat. I am standing here on this stage tonight because of you."

Stuart Scott 

Last year at the ESPYS, Scott accepted the Jimmy V award for one of the notable people battling a type of cancer like Coach Valvano did. Valvano is a former NC State basketball head coach whose life was cut short to an end ten years after winning the NCAA National Championship due to cancer. His speech in 1993 still goes down as one of the greatest speeches in sports history.  The V foundation was created to open the awareness of cancer patients and raised over $90 million dollars to open facilities worldwide.

There are many sports athletes and anchors that are currently fighting cancer to this day. Cancer, Cardiomyopathy, and other diseases should really be taken more serious.

Something doctors don’t realize, that having an enlarged heart is mostly emotional and that enhances it more than anything. It isn’t always an irregular heartbeat.

Currently, I am fighting this enlarged heart every day of my life and “still as cool as the other side of the pillow.”  I don’t play basketball anymore but I found another passion. A passion to be a sports journalist/broadcaster and still being around the game I love is a dream I hope come true. Having the family and friend support is the reason I am here today. I think about my heart all the time throughout the day but I try to live like I don’t have it.   

Inspecting into finding health problems more pensive needs to take a stand now before the issue escalate in number. The collapsing of athletes and rare sickness of players, coaches, anchors, and etc. should be the demonstration that is shown to help a better nation.

“Don’t give up,” said Stuart Scott. “Don’t ever give up.”