NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) – Sentara Health cardiologist Dr. George Sarris said that people think they are invincible “until it happens in a very public way.”
The road to recovery has begun for Bronny James, the son of star basketball player Lebron James, who collapsed from cardiac arrest during a college basketball practice last week.
“When I saw that, it definitely took be by surprise because Bronny James, I assume, takes his health very seriously,” said Old Dominion men’s basketball star recruit Leeroy Odiahi. “Seeing him have a cardiac arrest kind of shocked me.”
Standing tall at 6-foot-11, Odiahi, 21, took notice of what happened to James and on Monday, was taking precautions by lying down and getting a cardiac exam.
“If something was wrong, I would rather find out now then when the season starts,” Odiahi said. “(I) definitely want to see if I’m all good, all in shape.”
He along with other Monarch athletes that participate in high-risk sports get a complete cardiac exam before stepping on to the field or court.
“What we try to do is identify risk factors,” Sarris said. “And by identifying those risk factors we can minimize the of something bad happening.”
For the past seven years ODU has teamed up with Sentara Healthcare to give each athlete an EKG and echocardiogram – a complete heart check-up.
“How thick the wall of the heart is. How vigorous the squeeze of the heart is. How robust the relaxation of the heart,” Sarris said. “We look for valve defects. We look for things that just shouldn’t be.”
During the 2022-23 sports season two Monarch athletes, Imo Essien in basketball and tennis player Mya Byrd, collapsed during sporting events. Both returned to their sport.
“Sometimes the best amongst us, the healthiest amongst us who we consider to be at the pinnacle of human physiology really aren’t,” Sarris said, “and it is not something they did or didn’t do. It is something they’re either inherently born with or it is something they acquired.”
While lives have yet to be saved through the testing, they have discovered potential issues, and those athletes were treated with medication or modified workouts.
