Soccer star speaks out 2 months after collapsing on field mid-game
Angel City FC defender Savy King is speaking out and raising awareness about CPR, two months after she suddenly collapsed on the field during a May 9 match between Angel City and the Utah Royals.
The National Women's Soccer League star had been celebrating a teammate's goal just moments before she collapsed and told "Good Morning America" she doesn't recall everything that happened at the time.
"There's actually a lot that I don't remember," King said. "But I remember I wasn't feeling right and I remember I grabbed my leg because I was trying to distract myself from the fact that, like, I felt like I was gonna pass out. And then … I remember the medical staff coming onto the field."
Both Angel City and Utah Royals team members gathered in a prayer circle while Angel City's medical staff responded to King for several minutes.
King, 20, ended up getting rushed to the hospital while unresponsive, according to the Angel City FC medical team staff.
"I'd never had, like, any medical history of anything, like, with my heart, even in injuries in general," King told "GMA."
King's doctor said after multiple tests, they learned the pro athlete had a rare congenital heart abnormality and experienced a form of heart attack.
Dr. Richard Kim is one of King's doctors and the director of congenital cardiac surgery at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles.
"Savy was born with an anomalous left coronary artery," Kim explained. "The left coronary is the most important blood vessel in your heart, and when it's anomalous, it means that it's in a slightly different location than normal."
Kim led a team of doctors who performed heart surgery to correct King's condition.
"In Savy's case, we created a new pathway for the blood to get to the artery, so the blood goes into her blood vessel in pretty much a normal fashion," said Kim. "I think the first responders on the field did a fantastic job of resuscitating her before there was permanent damage."
After undergoing surgery, King posted on Instagram, thanking the Angel City FC medical team, which includes head athletic trainer Hollie Walusz and Sarah Smith, vice president of medical and performance.
Speaking with "GMA," the two recalled the moment King collapsed and their subsequent on-field efforts.
"We made the decision then to start chest compressions while the AED was getting applied," Walusz recalled.
"For it to happen on that night, in our home stadium, where we had our entire medical team there, it was incredible work of that group and the timing that … it actually happened to be able to have the outcome that we had," Smith added.
King credits the medical team for saving her life.
"They saved my life," said King. "That will stay with me forever in my heart, and just knowing that, like, I get to play in front of them too and see that they were a huge reason why I'm here is, like, I play for them too now."
Both of King's mothers were by her side throughout the incident, and King said she wants them to know that she loves them.
"They are everything to me," said King. "I wouldn't be here without them. I can't even continue talking about it, because ... there's not enough, like, anything I can give them. But the rest of my career, the rest of my life is for them."
Although King is not yet cleared to return to competition, doctors say they are hopeful King can play again in the future.
"I was just so happy that I was gonna be able to recover and be as normal and almost be like a Savy 2.0 now," King said when she learned of her prognosis. "So I'll be back, and I'll be better than ever."
In the meantime, King is showing support for her team, attending practice this week for the first time since she collapsed.
"Every time I see soccer, I wanna play," she said. "So it's obviously so hard to just watch and not be able to play. Even just watching games, it's awesome, just to have, like, a different perspective now that I can't play and just seeing a different part of the sport is really cool."
She also encouraged everyone to learn CPR.
"Anything can happen at any time," King said. "So just knowing how to do CPR, I think, is super important -- 'cause it can save a life, and it saved my life."
