Bronny James appears to be headed in the right direction after he suffered cardiac arrest last month during basketball practice at the University of Southern California, where he committed to play in May.
James, the son of four-time NBA champion LeBron James, is recovering, and a family spokesperson revealed last week that the cause of the incident was likely a “functionally significant congenital heart defect.”
The term is a broad category for a heart condition, UConn Health cardiologist Dr. Peter Schulman told The Post in a phone interview this week.
Dr. Schulman hasn’t treated James but he works with UConn’s athletic programs and has been at UConn Health for nearly 40 years.
“Some congenital defects are relatively easily fixable with a procedure or certain treatment, and they can be fixed easily. Others are not.” Dr, Schulman explained. “For example, if he has an aortic valve narrowing, that’s a congenital defect that can be fixed. That can be opened up with a balloon procedure.”
Another example of a congenital heart defect that Dr. Schulman pointed to was the case of former NBA player Pete Maravich, who had a missing coronary artery.
“Basically, he had blood supply to one side of his heart, to a large portion of his heart that basically didn’t exist,” Dr. Schulman said. “A coronary artery problem can potentially be fixed.”
Other potential issues that fall under the congenital heart defect category is when the artery supplying “a big part” of the heart muscle is supplying it with unoxygenated blood instead of oxygenated blood.
“That causes a big problem and that can be fixed relatively easily,” Dr. Schulman said. “There are a number of conditions that a cardiologist can envision being relatively easily treatable, maybe with a procedure or with some quick surgery. Or with some quick medication adjustments.”
In a statement to Page Six on Friday, the family spokesperson said that James’ condition “can and will be treated” and the family was confident that he will make a “full recovery,” which includes a “return to basketball in the very near future.”
The 18-year-old has been attending classes since the cardiac event and USC coach Andy Enfield said James was trending in the right direction.
“The good thing is he’s doing extremely well and he’s in class right now. And we all love him,” Enfield told The Associated Press. “I think everybody is hopeful that Bronny will return to the court. We just have to be patient and take it step by step.”
James suffered a cardiac arrest July 24 and collapsed while briefly losing consciousness.
He was revived by medical personnel and rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he remained for three days before being released.
