High school athletes learn life-saving skills in program

SOLANA BEACH, Calif. - Tommy Mallon brought a crowd with him on his most recent trip back to his alma mater, Santa Fe Christian High School here.

Besides his mom and some instructors, the entourage included several dozen dummies, the kind used to practice cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

The mid-January visit was to launch a new program teaching student athletes life-saving skills and injury recognition, setting up a new line of defense against catastrophic injuries on high school playing fields.

Mallon's lacrosse career ended on the school's field in May 2009, his last home game as a senior. A collision with another player threw him to the ground. The injury could have left him paralyzed, even killed him, if the school's athletic trainer, Riki Kirchhoff, hadn't been there.

Kirchhoff held Mallon's head immobile and wouldn't let him move until paramedics arrived to put him in a protective brace and backboard. X-rays later showed his neck was broken in three places.

"I wanted to get up," said Mallon. "I didn't think it was that bad and [Kirchhoff] made me stay down."

"The only reason Tommy is alive is because there was someone who was educated on the sidelines,'' said his mother, Beth Mallon.

As her son graduated, completed rehab and moved on to the University of San Diego, she and her family set up a foundation, Advocates for Injured Athletes, to press for better prevention and care of student-athletes in California and across the country.

Having a full-time certified athletic trainer like Kirchhoff (one of two at Santa Fe) is the exception rather than the rule at schools across the nation. Only about a third of high schools with athletic programs have full coverage by an athletic trainer during practices and games, and no state mandates them.

The Mallons joined lobbying efforts aimed at getting better professional recognition and coverage by athletic trainers in California, but came to realize that even a full-time trainer can't be close to every team on a sprawling high school campus.

Beth Mallon, who has worked in preventive medicine, talked with experts around the country about ways to increase student awareness and understanding about injuries.

The result is Athletes Saving Athletes, a daylong immersion into sports safety and first aid for athletes on every interscholastic team in a school -- 45 in the first session at Santa Fe.

"The athletes are the people who are going to be there first, so we want them to be educated,'' said Tommy Mallon.

Through a partnership with the American Red Cross, the athletes also got certified in CPR and automated external defibrillator (AED) use.

"I've always wanted to get CPR certified because ... you never know what could happen," said Santa Fe student athlete Grant Lucier. Graduates of the program will also set up team meeting to share information they've learned.

The session will be repeated at nine public high schools in San Diego County over the next several months. Mallon said the foundation wants to repeat the training to a new group of athletes at each school every year.

For more information, visit www.InjuredAthletes.org .

Virginia Cha reports for Scripps KGTV in San Diego; Lee Bowman is health and science correspondent for Scripps Howard News Service in Washington.

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