Anthony had a heart that was 3 times the normal size due to Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM), a heart condition that causes Sudden Cardiac Arrest.  One would think that this would have been detected in school mandated annual physicals but it wasn't because his only symptom occurred on the day his heart stopped. 

Most schools mandate an annual routine medical examination for students involved in their sport teams.  Rarely do these routine exams include screening for heart abnormalities even though hundreds of students collapse, and often die, on their field each year from their heart conditions.  Many students lack adequate healthcare insurance to pay for EKG (typically $500) or an ultrasound test (typically $1,500).  Whereas the Anthony Bates Foundation provides these tests to your students and community for a small donation and often free.  

The Center for Disease Control data indicates that SCA is a silent, symptom-less killer, stating in their 2006 Report that 7,000 to 14,000 children die each year from Sudden Cardiac Arrest and almost half (over 36%) of these young deaths are from HCM. A recent 2010 study in Kansas schools showed that many of the KS student deaths could have been preventable with the non-invasive tests of EKG and EchoCardiograms.