Findings

Congress finds the following: (1) Heat-related illnesses are a serious medical condition that result from the body’s inability to cool itself down in extremely hot environments. Heat-related illnesses include heat stroke, heat exhaustion, heat cramps, heat syncope, heat rash, and muscle breakdown. When experiencing heat illness, patients may exhibit an array of symptoms including but not limited to confusion, slurred speech, unconsciousness, vomiting, seizures, fatigue, elevated body temperature, fainting, dizziness, or muscle pain. (2) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported over 700 heat-related deaths in the United States from 2004 to 2018. Heat is the leading climate-related cause of deaths, and rising temperatures pose a serious risk to student athletes participating in outdoor sports. (3) Jordan McNair, a highly accomplished high school football player from Maryland, received scholarship offers from many competitive university football programs. He chose to continue his athletic and academic career at the University of Maryland. (4) On May 29, 2018, Jordan McNair collapsed during a workout on the University of Maryland’s football field in the 81 degrees Fahrenheit heat. McNair was suffering from exertional heatstroke and was unable to remain in an upright position without assistance from his teammates, medical staff, or coaching staff. (5) Despite being a student athlete at a well-funded division I university, Jordan McNair received inadequate heat-related illness treatment once he was escorted off the field and into the athletic training room. Because medical staff were unable to reverse McNair’s core body temperature, the illness escalated to a seizure and respiratory distress. (6) Most medical professionals advise patients to receive treatment within 30 minutes of initial heat illness symptoms. Over 90 minutes passed from the time McNair displayed initial symptoms of exertional heatstroke to the time he finally received adequate care from the nearest hospital. (7) By the time Jordan McNair arrived at the hospital, his core body temperature had reached a life-threatening temperature of 106 degrees Fahrenheit. (8) On June 13, 2018, two weeks after collapsing on the football field at practice, Jordan McNair died from symptoms of exertional heatstroke. (9) Two extensive external investigations of the University of Maryland’s football program concluded that the program’s medical staff failed to promptly intervene, diagnose, and treat Jordan McNair’s exertional heatstroke symptoms. (10) According to an independent medical report, University staff failed to assess Jordan McNair’s vitals, recognize and monitor heat-related illness symptoms, provide adequate cooling devices and respiratory aids, and generate an emergency plan to coordinate with emergency responders. (11) The University of Maryland has taken significant steps to prevent and treat heat-related injuries among their student athletes, making cold water immersion tubs available at every practice and game, installing and maintaining readily accessible automatic defibrillators at every venue, increasing the training and reporting structure of athletic trainers, among other reforms in line with the priorities of this Act. (12) The McNair family is devoted to honoring Jordan’s legacy and founded the Jordan McNair Foundation, which provides an educational tool to help coaches, student athletes, and parents identify symptoms of heatstroke and heat-related illnesses. (13) Heat-related illnesses and fatalities are preventable if caught early. Medical staff, coaches, and athletes must be knowledgeable of the warning signs for heat-related illness in order to protect student athletes from injury, and even death.