A pair of Long Island parents who lost their star-student-athlete son to an undiagnosed heart condition has made it their mission to try to save others from the same tragic fate.
Massapequa High School senior Connor Kasin was a tremendous,17-year-old leader on the Chiefs varsity hockey team when he suddenly succumbed on the ice between the periods of a charity game in November 2024.
His parents, Mary and Craig Kasin, are now pushing for electrocardiogram, or EKG, screenings to be mandatory across youth school sports in New York to hopefully flag obscure medical issues similar to what their boy had.
“I have to convince myself that this is why this happened, because somebody’s meant to do this, and unfortunately or fortunately, it’s us,” Craig recently told The Post.
The devastating incident stemmed from Connor’s rare case of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, which causes abnormal heartbeat rhythms.
“Nothing ever came up in a basic physical,” Mary said.
“It’s unbelievably painful to lose a child,” she said. “If I even thought for a second that Connor had a problem, he would have had an EKG.”
Mary noted that EKGs are simple and non-invasive.
“Every parent should want this for their child, across the country, across the world,” the mom said.
The Kasin family is now working with Massapequa Park-based state Assemblyman Michael Durso to pass the proposed “Connor’s Law,” which would require every scholastic athlete to undergo an EKG screening by age 13.
“We have bipartisan support here in the assembly for the law,” Durso said, adding that a similar bill was passed in Florida.
“Hopefully, the governor and everybody else hear our cries and understand that this is something that needs to get done. It’s going to save lives.”
Massapequa’s hockey teams, from middle through high school, participated in a pilot EKG program Monday in which Mount Sinai South Nassau brought machines in to screen athletes.
That day, 37 Chiefs players happened to be screened — Connor’s number on the ice.
“We knew it as a sign, and it was a sign that Connor completely approved of what we were doing,” said former Chiefs player Billy Sciurba, who was supposed to be Connor’s defensive partner on the blue line for their senior year.
“Connor’s right there watching over us and trying to save other lives and save other communities from going through what we went through.”
Durso said he hopes state legislation will show “there can be a public-private partnership with a local hospital, local doctor, so that we can get this done for the kids that we’re trying to protect.”
The bill will next be reviewed by the assembly’s Health Committee, and the Kasin family will likely head to Albany to testify during the approval process, according to the assemblyman.
Massapequa High’s EKG-testing program could expand to schools across Long Island in the meantime.
“A couple of the basketball players’ moms reached out,” Mary said.
“And hockey players asked for their siblings who will be playing spring sports. They wanted to bring their siblings [Monday].”
Craig noted that Connor’s close friends immediately sought EKGs for themselves after his passing.
“It was definitely something out of sight, out of mind before,” Sciurba said.
“This is definitely something that should be mandated,” said the teen, who is now an executive member of the Connor Kasin Memorial Foundation.
The 19-year-old college freshman currently plays club hockey at the University of Tennessee and preached the same message to his new teammates, who have since had EKGs coordinated by the foundation.
“It’s something that we’re going to try to move on to Tennessee as well, starting with the state of New York,” he said.
“If we can move it across the country, that’d be something awesome.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
