
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, June 25, 1993                   TAG: 9306250141
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: DENVER                                LENGTH: Short

HEART PROTECTOR DEVELOPED FOR KIDS

Since 1985, 11 children have died in the United States after being struck in the chest with a baseball. A new product could prevent similar accidents.

Heart-Gard, a plastic plate that covers the heart, is designed to absorb a line drive or a fast ball that could cause injury to a young ballplayer.

When a child is hit in the chest, the heart receives an electrical charge that may cause it to stop beating, said Dr. Richard Flanigan, a heart specialist.

"If you hit the heart with an electrical impulse during that period, which is between one-tenth and one-twentieth of a second per beat, it will stop," Flanigan said.

Heart-Gard is a 21-square-inch plate made of high density polyethylene plastic.

"The first thing the Heart-Gard does when the ball strikes it is it transfers the force away from the heart to the more rigid structures of the skeleton," said developer Jeff Smith, president of S&M Human Performance Products Inc.

by CNB