Newswise \u2014 LOS ANGELES (Sept. 25, 2025) —\u00a0When professional soccer player Savy King talks about her on-field collapse, it is with the same calm demeanor that helped her survive. King didn\u2019t feel like herself while playing in a National Women\u2019s Soccer League game in May.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew something wasn’t right, and the best thing to do was to sit down so that I could get the medical attention I needed,\u201d said King, a defender for Angel City FC (ACFC).<\/p>\n
During that infamous match, King stood up to kick a ball that was passed to her but slowly went down again. Next, everything went black. King was having a heart attack at 20.<\/p>\n
ACFC physicians, including\u00a0Tracy Zaslow, MD<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Rachel Triche, MD<\/a>\u00a0of Cedars-Sinai rushed onto the field with ACFC head athletic trainer, Hollie Walusz, who performed lifesaving CPR, preventing permanent heart damage. King was transported to Cedars-Sinai, where she had emergency surgery to correct a heart defect she didn\u2019t know she had.<\/p>\n It was a dramatic turn of events for a woman who started playing soccer at 10, declared at 12 she wanted to play professionally, and was selected with the second overall pick in the 2024 National Women’s Soccer League draft at 18. A year later, she joined ACFC.\u00a0<\/p>\n King is one of millions of people who undergo heart surgery every year and face a long recovery.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the first major injury I\u2019ve had, so it\u2019s been a lot of me figuring things out,\u201d she said. \u201cHaving a huge support system has been the biggest thing and also being able to just feel all the emotions I’m feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n The Cedars-Sinai team included (top row, from left): Merije Chukumerije, MD; Joanna Chikwe, MD; Seth Lichtenstein, MD; and Richard Kim, MD. Bottom row (from left): Tracy Zaslow, MD; Savy King; Rose Tompkins, MD; and Melita Viegas, MD.<\/p>\n When Cedars-Sinai cardiologist\u00a0Seth Lichtenstein, MD,<\/a>\u00a0reviewed CT scans of King\u2019s heart, he discovered one of the large arteries that feeds blood to the heart was showing an extremely narrow opening\u2014like a road that was nearly blocked off.<\/p>\n \u201cHer left coronary artery was so narrow that it was unable to deliver blood to the heart effectively,\u201d Lichtenstein said.<\/p>\n Lichtenstein diagnosed King with an anomalous left coronary artery, a rare condition that fewer than 1% of people are born with. Most people with an anomalous artery don\u2019t learn about their condition until they have symptoms so severe that a doctor orders imaging or when they have imaging for an unrelated reason. The type of anomaly that King had is the kind that typically requires surgery.<\/p>\n \u201cThis congenital lesion can be especially dangerous,\u201d said\u00a0Richard W. Kim, MD<\/a>, director of Pediatric and Congenital Heart Surgery at Cedars-Sinai. \u201cIt can lead to a heart attack, stroke, heart failure, or even sudden death.\u201d<\/p>\n Kim led the team of doctors who performed the surgery, creating a new pathway for the blood to get to the artery.<\/p>\n Next came King\u2019s recovery. After six weeks of physical therapy at home, King began a cardiac rehabilitation program in the\u00a0Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai<\/a>. Three days a week for three months, she exercised under the guidance of physicians and nurses while hooked up to monitors that displayed her heart rate and rhythm.<\/p>\n King, who projects an upbeat positivity, felt a kinship with other patients who did cardiac rehab.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember talking to one woman who kept saying she was so happy to see that even after you have surgery, you can still go about life and be happy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n King is grateful that ACFC had medical experts available to resuscitate her. Cedars-Sinai is the team’s official healthcare partner, and health system physicians\u00a0regularly care for players and sit on the sidelines at games.<\/p>\n