Experts say 100 to 150 times every year, a competitive athlete suffers cardiac arrest. It happened seven months ago when Buffalo Bills star safety Demar Hamlin collapsed on the field during a game.
Now, it's happened to an up-and-coming basketball star and the son of one of the best to ever play the game — Bronny James suffered a cardiac arrest during practice at USC Monday night.
LeBron James's oldest son is out of the ICU and the family is thanking the USC medical and athletic staff for their incredible work.
The push for heart health awareness has been going on for years here in Ohio for quite some time, and this incident is just shedding more light on it. Though Bronny’s condition is now stable, we don’t know what caused his arrest; Dr. Judith Mackall, the cardiac electrophysiologist at University Hospitals, says it could be a number of things.
“In young and old people, sometimes the reason that the electrical system gets out of whack is because of a structural issue. But sometimes, especially in young patients, it's a primary electrical problem,” said Dr. Mackall.
If an athlete does have a heart condition, the two most common are abnormal coronary artery flow or hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, where the heart muscle gets abnormally thickened.
Though a cardiac arrest is usually very sudden, athletes can take steps to protect themselves by paying attention to warning signs and knowing their family history.
That's why heart health activists Lindsay Davis have pushed for Lindsay’s Law, which was established in 2017.
“There's 72% of the children that are collapsing are reporting these symptoms, and everyone is misdiagnosing them,” said Davis.
Now in Ohio, parents, coaches and athletes must watch a video that educates them about heart health, preventive measures and what to do in times of cardiac arrest.
“They're supposed to sign off on a form saying they understand the symptoms of a heart condition and if they feel any of those, they'll tell someone," said Davis.
They are also pushing to change the law to require AEDs in schools. The American Heart Association says if a patient receives defibrillation through an AED in the first minute, the survival rate is 90%.
“In the NCAA, we have all of these in place, but that's why we're fighting so hard to get these protections in place for our high school student athletes, because one group should not be more important than the other,” said Davis.
Dr. Mackall added that athletes can still play with heart conditions, but that decision is up to the athlete, their doctor and their coaching staff.
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