Angel City Football Club defender Savy King, who collapsed in a May 9 game against the Utah Royals, said Wednesday in an interview with “Good Morning America” that she doesn’t remember much of what happened that night.
“I remember that I wasn’t feeling right and I remembered I grabbed my leg because I was trying to distract myself from the fact that I felt I was going to pass out,” King said in an interview with Will Reeve. “I remember the medical staff coming onto the field.”
King, 20, collapsed in the second half of the game. The medical staff rushed onto the field to treat her, doing chest compressions and using a defibrillator. King was eventually rushed to the hospital and transferred to Cedars Sinai, where she underwent successful heart surgery.
King said that she didn’t have a history of heart problems before the incident, but was diagnosed with a rare congenital heart abnormality.
Dr. Richard Kim, one of King’s doctors, said in the interview that King was born with an “anomalous left coronary artery.”
“The left coronary is the most important blood vessel in your heart,” Kim said. “When it is anomalous, it means that it’s in a slightly different location than normal.”
Kim added that the surgery created a “new pathway for the blood to get to the artery.”
“I think the first responders on the field did a fantastic job of resuscitating her before there was permanent damage,” Kim said.
“They saved my life,” King said of the team’s medical staff. “That will stay with me forever. They are a huge reason why I’m here.”
One month later, King returned to BMO Stadium, watching Angel City’s game against the Chicago Stars. She also surprised the team attending a training session.
“Me and Savy got super close this year,” midfielder Kennedy Fuller said after the June 7 game. “To be able to see her and see her so healthy and so happy … she battles so hard, that’s on the field, that’s off the field. To be able to see have little wins and big wins. She makes me so happy.
“To be able to see her and for the fans to be able to see her was awesome.”
Fellow defender M.A. Vignola added that King and the team needed that moment.
“To see her smile and see her so radiant and back to being herself, it was kind of like a breath of fresh air for us,” Vignola said.
King hasn’t been cleared to resume playing, but according the interview, her doctors believe that “it’s just a matter of time” before that happens.
“I was so happy that I was going to be able to recover and be as normal and almost be like a Savy 2.0 now,” King said. “I’ll be back and I’ll be better than ever.”
SUMMER EXHIBITIONS
Angel City will play the first of two summer exhibition matches on Saturday against Northern California rival Bay FC. The game will be played at 1:30 p.m. at PayPal Park.
Angel City will host Carolina Ascent FC, from the USL Super League, in an exhibition on July 26 at BMO Stadium (5 p.m.).
Angel City will resume NWSL play on Aug. 1 at Seattle.
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