Teen who survived sudden cardiac arrest raising awareness for student heart checks

When 18-year-old Alex Bowerson suffered a cardiac arrest at wrestling practice last December, he was lucky his high school's cheerleading coach was nearby to perform speedy CPR and resuscitate him using the school's automated external defibrillator, or AED.

The recent high school graduate from Memphis, Mich. — a city that sits on the border of Macomb and St. Clair counties — has always been active and played on the varsity football, wrestling and baseball teams. Unbeknownst to him, Bowerson also had a rare genetic heart condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Bowerson's day began normally on Dec. 16, 2022. He took an exam and went to wrestling practice, where he began warming up with a jog around the school's hallways. Then he was hit with a tight pain in his chest.

"It was a very big pain in my chest," Bowerson said. "And then it was about 10 seconds and I hit the floor and probably next thing I know I was in the back of an ambulance."

Bowerson was found on the floor, blue and unresponsive with no pulse, he said. Memphis High School cheerleading coach Amanda Bobcean is a registered nurse and started CPR on him almost immediately, he said. After getting shocked once with an AED, normal rhythm was restored to his heart.

"It was incredible that she, you know, stepped up and helped," Bowerson said. "It's incredible because you only have minutes. ... By the time my heart went into complete ventricular fibrillation — when it's just not pumping any blood at all, it's just quivering — there was already an AED on me."

The survival rate from cardiac arrest drops by 10% each minute a patient has to wait for CPR, according to the American Heart Association.

HCM affects roughly one in every 500 people and causes the walls of the left ventricle, the heart chamber that is responsible for pumping oxygenated blood to the rest of the body, to become thicker than normal. The thick walls may become stiff, reducing the amount of blood and oxygen that is pumped to the rest of the body and sometimes causing cardiac arrest.

Between 100 and 150 sudden cardiac deaths occur during competitive sports each year, according to a 2016 report from the American College of Cardiology. The incidence of cardiac arrests in athletes hasn't changed recently, but high-profile incidents have raised awareness of heart check programs and CPR training for athletes.

Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin's heart stopped in the middle of a game in January. Officials performed CPR and restored his heartbeat on the field before Hamlin was taken to a hospital. Four months later he was cleared to play again and specialists agreed that the cardiac arrest was the result of commotio cordis, or an abnormal heart rhythm and cardiac arrest that follows a strong impact to the chest.

Cartier Woods, a senior and star-athlete at Detroit Northwestern, went into cardiac arrest during a basketball game in late January and died about a week later. Woods was given CPR before he was taken to a local hospital and the school had a defibrillator on hand.

Corewell Health, formerly known as Beaumont, is offering a free student heart check on August 5 at Cass Tech High School in Detroit. Bowerson plans to volunteer at the event, where students will receive a series of heart health tests including a blood pressure check, an electrocardiogram (EKG), an echocardiogram and a physical exam, in addition to instruction on how to perform CPR and use an AED.

"Those tests help detect if there's congenital heart conditions or things that they're unaware of that they might need to get checked out before continuing sports," said Jennifer Shea, who manages the Beaumont student heart check program. "Without knowing that you have a cardiac issue, it could lead to sudden cardiac arrest."

The tests go beyond what is checked in a regular physical exam, Shea said. The Beaumont Student Heart Check program began in 2007 and has screened over 20,000 students, detecting significant heart conditions in 227 of them.

The screening can detect HCM, Bowerman's condition, in addition to others like Wolff Parkinson White syndrome, Long QT syndrome and abnormal valves, Shea said.

Bowerson had heard about the screenings but "never thought anything of it." Now he shares it with everybody.

"Student-athletes... need to go get checked and not disregard symptoms," Bowerson said. "Since middle school, I've had just slight chest discomfort here and there. It was never anything bad. ... And I just kind of shrugged it off."

Bowerson remembers losing consciousness or feeling dizzy during football games last fall but playing anyway.

"It sounds foolish of me but I... think I just ignored the signs," Bowerson said.

Detecting a heart condition doesn't necessarily mean an athlete has to give up their sport, Shea said. Very infrequently, some may be asked to take a break in order to be evaluated by a cardiologist.

"If ... somebody's complaining of any kind of a symptom, don't just brush it off as someone being dehydrated. Get them to a doctor and make sure they have a heart screening," Shea said.

The best way to prevent deaths in the moment of a collapse is to make sure teams have access to an AED and that coaches and staff are trained in how to administer CPR, Shea said. Having a plan in the event of a sudden cardiac arrest is even better.

Schools in Michigan are currently not required to purchase AEDs, which cost between $1,500 and $2,000 each, Shea said. But ideally, every school and sports team should have easy access to one, she added.

While most schools have an AED on-site, it may not be accessible to teams practicing or playing outside, Shea said. Proper maintenance of the machines is also key.

Bowerson called on state and federal politicians to make sure every school has one.

"There needs to be an AED in every school," Bowerson said. "It would save kids every year and one life would be worth the cost of all of that."

After his cardiac arrest, Bowerson was given a subcutaneous defibrillator, a device that goes under the skin and delivers a shock to the heart when it detects an abnormal rhythm. He can still exercise, but he has to avoid strenuous weight lifting, he said.

Prior to the incident, Bowerson planned to study aviation science in college and become a commercial pilot. While he no longer meets the health requirements for pilots, he has found a new career path and plans to attend the University of Michigan this fall.

"I now want to be a cardiologist," Bowerson said. "Because of this incident, I want to help people that were scared like me and that have gone what I've gone through."