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MARVELOUS Nakamba’s captain at Luton Town, Tom Lockyer, is still in hospital after he suffered a cardiac arrest in a league match last weekend.
An expert, Dr Begley, sheds some light on this condition in his chat with ITV.
ITV: What is cardiac arrest and why is it so dangerous?
Dr David Begley: Cardiac arrest is basically an electrical instability in the heart that stops it from pumping and if it is not recovered quickly, it is fatal.
Steps taken immediately would be to manually keep the blood pumping by giving compressions to the chest but the only way to correct it is to shock the heart electrically using a defibrillator.
And these are present now in a lot of public places.
ITV: How is it different from a heart attack?
The terms get confused a lot, but a heart attack is a blockage to the arteries that are supplying blood to the heart muscle.
When that isn’t corrected quickly enough, it can lead to damage to the muscle which can lead to electrical instability and then cardiac arrest in quite a large number of cases.
ITV: We know that football clubs do screen for heart conditions – what can you tell us about those screenings and how common is it for things to be missed?
Dr David Begle: Screening has become more rigorous as the years go past, as these cases are so high-profile. Screening consists of physical examination, to check there are no physical manifestations of disease, and an electrocardiogram (ECG) test that records the electrical activity of your heart.
That gives us a lot of insight into the heart.
And then an ultrasound scan also, which means you can have a look at the heart and ensure it is structurally normal as well.
But it is not always possible to determine from that if someone is at risk of cardiac arrest, not in every case.
ITV: Would it have been advisable in your opinion for a patient who had recently been treated for atrial fibrillation to return to sport at a professional level?
Dr David Begle: It depends on a number of factors, including confidence in the treatment he had had for his AF, and I don’t know what he had.
AF is a very common condition that does get more likely as you get older – about 15% of people in their 80s will have some kind of AF.
But there is also a very small subset of extreme athletes that have a slightly increased risk of AF as well.
But often, with good treatment, they can continue participating in sport. – ITV
Online Reporter