LeBron James Jr., the son of the N.B.A. star LeBron James, suffered a cardiac arrest while practicing at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles on Monday and was taken to the hospital for treatment in the intensive care unit, according to a statement from a spokesman for LeBron James and his wife, Savannah. The younger James, known as Bronny, is now in stable condition and no longer in the I.C.U., the statement said.
“LeBron and Savannah wish to publicly send their deepest thanks and appreciation to the U.S.C. medical and athletic staff for their incredible work and dedication to the safety of their athletes,” the statement said.
The Los Angeles Fire Department responded to a call for medical aid at 9:26 a.m. in the 3400 block of Figueroa Street in Los Angeles, the address of the university’s Galen Center athletic facility, a department spokeswoman said on Tuesday. The department would not disclose who needed medical aid, citing federal policy.
Bronny James, 18, will be a freshman at U.S.C. this fall. He is the eldest of the Lakers star LeBron James’s three children. Bronny James was a four-star recruit and chose U.S.C. over Oregon and Ohio State.
The U.S.C. men’s basketball program was scheduled to take a 10-day exhibition trip to Greece and Croatia beginning Aug. 5, according to a statement it released in May. It was not clear whether the team would still make the trip or whether James would go.
Cardiac arrest, when the heart stops, is different from a heart attack, which happens when blood flow in an artery feeding the heart is blocked. More than 300,000 people a year experience cardiac arrest outside of hospitals.
The survival rate for those who suffer cardiac arrest and receive bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation is just 11.2 percent. For those who receive immediate defibrillation, survival rises to 41 percent. It was not known what treatment James received.
Brain damage is likely if a person in cardiac arrest goes four to six minutes without CPR, and brain death occurs after 10 minutes. Only 8 percent of cardiac arrest survivors emerge with a good neurological outcome. Most “have some degree of brain injury,” Monica Sales, a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association, said in an interview in January.
U.S.C. has experience handling cardiac emergencies. During a workout at the Galen Center last summer, the incoming freshman Vincent Iwuchukwu suffered a cardiac arrest and was hospitalized. Iwuchukwu returned to play in 14 games for the Trojans last season.
Keyontae Johnson, a budding star at Florida, went into cardiac arrest during a game in 2020. He eventually recovered and resumed his career at Kansas State, where he starred last season on a team that reached the round of 8 in the N.C.A.A. tournament. Johnson was selected by Oklahoma City in the second round of the N.B.A. draft in June.
Few cardiac events have played out more publicly than Damar Hamlin’s collapse from cardiac arrest during a nationally televised football game last season. Hamlin, who is now attempting to resume his career with the Buffalo Bills, posted a message of support for James on Twitter: “Prayers to Bronny & The James family as well. here for you guys just like you have been for me my entire process.”
Montrice Wright, the mother of Kijani Wright, a freshman forward with the Trojans, said that she had not spoken with her son since James’s collapse, but that she hoped that he and the other members of the team were coping in the wake of the second such incident in just over a year.
“The concern doesn’t go away when you witness something like that,” she said. “These kids put themselves through so much; they don’t rest enough, and it’s been hot.” READ MORE
