Doctors share warning signs after Virginia college athlete sidelined by heart condition

A University of Virginia athlete was recently diagnosed with a heart condition that pose a serious risk to young athletes -- but it can also be difficult to detect. Here are the warning signs doctors say you should never ignore.

Tucker Mullen played lacrosse at UVA — until last fall, when he was sidelined with chest pain during practice.

"It felt like someone had a light hand kind of pushing on my chest," Mullen said. "Eventually during one of the practices, it was too much and I was unable to breathe well and got shortness of breath very, very quickly."

Doctors ran a series of tests, but everything came up normal. However, his symptoms didn't go away.

"And that's what the scariest thing was," said his mom, Lisa Mullen. "His chest pressure, nothing would help it. So it was the unknown, like, what is wrong? They kept ruling out this — 'It's not this;' 'It's not that;' 'His heart looks good; he's healthy' — and I'm like, 'OK, but why does he feel like this?'"

She was still worried, especially after hearing stories of young athletes such as Damar Hamlin and Bronny James suffering cardiac arrest while playing sports at a competitive level. That's when they went to Children's National Hospital in D.C. for a second opinion. Doctors there did another round of screenings, including a stress test, as well as a cardiac MRI that uncovered the issue.

Tucker Mullen had a congenital heart condition called anomalous origin of the right coronary artery, in which where one of the coronary arteries that brings blood to the body was routed around his heart in a way that restricted blood flow, which could lead to a heart attack.

It's the second leading cause of sudden death among athletes.

"Screening is not so easy to detect this, as you saw from Tucker's case," said Dr. Charlie Berul, a cardiologist at Children's National Hospital who treated Mullen. "He had an evaluation even after symptoms, and the initial evaluation was thought to be normal."

Berul says most people don't even know they have this condition and can live a normal, healthy life without having symptoms or needing surgery. But there are warning signs to look out for, especially for athletes.

"We worry more and raise a red flag if there's exertion symptoms," Berul said. "Chest pain with exercise or fainting with exercise is a lot more concerning than fainting when you stand up too fast or a sharp chest pain because you tweaked a muscle in your chest wall, which is so common in teenagers."

At 21, Mullen had open heart surgery the day before Thanksgiving.

Now he's on the mend, thankful to be treated before suffering any serious complications on the field. Doctors say they're amazed at his progress as he gears up for his comeback while encouraging other athletes to speak up when something doesn't feel right.

"It's OK to ask for help, and it's OK to feel like something is off," Mullen said. "I think a lot of the times, people are afraid to speak up because they don't want to miss time or lose a spot. In my case, if I didn't speak up about it, I could have had some really scary effects down the line."

Mullen's story is a reminder for parents and athletes to be mindful of their bodies and proactive about their health. Doctors say this particular heart condition occurs three times more often in men than women, although the reason why isn't entirely clear. If you have concerns, you can reach out to your child's primary care physician or pediatrician.