Up Close: Teen dies during football practice in the Bronx

Bill Ritter Image
Sunday, August 27, 2017
Up Close: Death of high school athlete
Bill Ritter talks with James Fisher, whose son died on the football field from sudden cardiac arrest, and Dr. Joe Herrera of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

NEW YORK (WABC) -- We begin this week with the sudden death of a teenage high school athlete, and now, understandably, many parents are concerned.

14-year-old Dominick Bess had no history of medical problems, and was in a non-contact practice Tuesday morning at Mount Saint Michael's Academy in the Bronx.

That's when the freshman student collapsed. He dropped dead.

The medical examiner is testing to find the exact cause of death.

But no matter, Dominick's death has left fellow students stunned and his family devastated.

At least four high school age students across the country have died during football practice in the past couple of months, two of them in the Tri-State area this month.

There are efforts to increase health screenings of athletes to try to find any underlying health problems before kids play strenuous sports.

With us are James Fisher, whose son Sean died 9 years ago on his 13th birthday on the football field from sudden cardiac arrest, and Dr. Joe Herrera, Director of Sports Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Also this week, you can get intellectual whiplash keeping track of President Trump's tone at speeches.

On prompter - on scripts written by his staff - he tries to sound presidential.

But when he lets loose - ad libbing - he goes on the attack, as he did this past week at a campaign rally in Arizona.

We're joined by political analyst Hank Sheinkopf and ABC News political director Rick Klein from our news bureau in Washington.

Bill Ritter talks with political analyst Hank Sheinkopf and ABC News political director Rick Klein.

Finally, the optimism about life from a little girl suffering in a terrible attack.

11-year-old Jamoneisha Merritt spent a week and a half in the hospital recovering from her serious burns.

A 12-year-old girl is now charged with deliberately pouring hot water over Jamoneisha's face during a sleepover.

Jamoneisha is now home and talked about the shocking incident with Eyewitness News reporter N.J. Burkett.

N.J. Burkett reports on the girl burned in an attack in the Bronx.