A Ticking Time Bomb?

A scary event unfolded at a USC basketball practice when highly touted freshman, Bronny James, collapsed on the court.  It was later revealed that he had suffered a heart attack.  How could a healthy 18 year old athlete suffer a heart attack?  His doctors later revealed a congenital heart defect was to blame.  Bronny has since returned to full duties for the Trojans basketball team after undergoing a procedure to repair the defect.

Unfortunately, this is not the first reported cardiac arrest event on the basketball court. Other athletes were not as fortunate as Bronny.  Another great college player, Hank Gathers, died while playing for the LMU Tigers.  Professional basketball player and Celtics fan favorite, Reggie Lewis, also died due to heart attack while playing.  Both of these players untimely deaths were attributed to something different than Bronny, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.  Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is a condition where the heart’s left ventricle wall becomes thick and stiff and loses the ability to pump blood out. I don’t know the exact details of Bronny’s medical condition but it doesn’t seem like a small procedure could repair hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Last year, Buffalo Bills football player Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest on the field while playing in Cincinnati.  His event was attributed to commotio cordis brought on by a blow to the chest. According to www.heart.org, commotio cordis is a cardiac arrest following a blow to the chest which induces a fatal arrhythmia (a heart rhythm disturbance) called ventricular fibrillation.  Damar was attended to quickly by medical staff and transported to the local hospital where he made a full recovery.  Damar continues to play football to this day. Fortunately, commotio cordis is rare because if not, I feel there would be a lot less contact sports in the world.

Sports injuries rings up images of pulled muscles, broken bones, and sprained ankles.   That said, the NIH reports that sudden cardiac arrest is the most common medical cause of death in athletes.  Incidence has been reported to range from 1 in 50000 to 1 in 300000 athletes per year over the past 20 years.  In young athletes, risk factors for cardiac events include congenital defects like found in Bronny James, arrythmia, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and blunt trauma.   The most common reason for heart attacks (usually seen in older individuals) is atherosclerotic disease (clogged blood vessels) (www.clevelandclinic.org).

Typically, heart conditions would only be found when symptomatic or on cardiac evaluation by a medical professional.  Education and screening may help reduce heart attacks during competition.  Many sports facilities have AEDs (automatic external defibrillator) available just in case of a rare cardiac event.  My younger brother was recently trained in CPR and BLS (basic life support) and many of my friends have CPR certification from hospital volunteering.

  Fortunately, heart attacks are rare, but preparedness can help reduce the worse consequences.

Figure given by https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Congenital-heart-defects-Diagram-of-heart-illustrating-the-structures-that-are-affected_fig1_221923651