After four sudden cardiac arrests in one day, Penn State’s Addie Lyon’s only question was: ‘Can I play volleyball again?’
Addie Lyon, No. 7, returned to the court as soon as possible to reconnect with her community, and the sport that she loves the most. Photo: Makenna Cameron
While most 16-year-olds are primarily concerned with school and getting their driver’s license, Addie Lyon’s worries changed overnight, thrusting her into a chain of events she never would have imagined.
Lyon had a typical day on Aug. 31, 2019, which involved competing in a 12-hour volleyball tournament, going on her first-ever date to the movies, and returning home to sleep before the start of the new week.
Little did she know, the next morning she wouldn’t wake up in her bed, but in a hospital bed, hooked up to multiple machines, surrounded by doctors and never-ending questions.
The morning of September 1, Lyon said her mom was walking past her room on her way to start her daily workout routine when she heard noises coming from Lyon’s bedroom.
“My mom was walking past my room, and it sounded like I was having a bad dream,” Lyon said. “She decided to come in and check on me. She wasn't able to get me awake and to come to, and so she checked for a pulse, and I had none.”
Unknowingly, Lyon had suffered from Sudden Cardiac Arrest in her sleep. Lyon’s mom immediately began performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), three rounds of it, starting Lyon’s heart again.
“We joke that kind of like you gave me life twice,” Lyon said. “I don't know what I would do without her, and to this day, like, we are just we're so unbelievably close.”
Although the medical team was able to keep her stable, she would later go on to have three more cardiac arrests, sending doctors into a state of shock, not knowing the root cause of her heart issues.
She was on the phone with a friend when another arrest was starting, so she hung up. And, then during another arrest, she pulled herself out of it.
To this day, she said she has no idea how she was able to do that and neither do the doctors.
Lyon had been in top physical shape before her multiple sudden cardiac arrests, never having an injury or health concern to keep her off the court and away from what she loved most, volleyball.
Within the span of one day, Lyon had suffered four cardiac arrests and survived each one.
She was sent to the Children’s Hospital in St. Louis, where she spent four days, living in a state of confusion.
“I remember the first question I asked was ‘Can I play volleyball again, can I get back on the court?’” Lyon said.
She said more than anything else she wanted to get back on the court to play, especially because she was a rising college volleyball star, verbally committed to play at the University of Missouri.
“What was helpful is that (the Missouri volleyball staff) were able to go through that whole experience with me,” Lyon said.
After spending days in the Intensive Care Unit, the doctors finally found out what was causing Lyon’s SCA. She was diagnosed with Long QT Syndrome, type two, which is a genetic heart condition where the heart takes too long to recharge between beats, causing Lyon’s cardiac arrests.
Lyon described the two types of her disorder: type one, which is exercise-induced, and type two, which is genetic. Thankfully, because Lyon was diagnosed with type 2, her odds of going back to volleyball were high.
Up until that point, her family was unaware of her being genetically predisposed to SCA. Her mom even had a brief thought, that there was a chance that, she was drugged on her first date, but that was nowhere near the case.
As she went through her storm, something that calmed her nerves was her family’s life verse, Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Lyon said her younger sister, also a volleyball player, was diagnosed with the same heart condition, too.
“Had it not happened to me, something like this could have happened to her later down the road,” Lyon said. “And now it won't because we were able to find it and diagnose it and keep her safe as well.”
Lyon is a fighter.
After her speedy three-month recovery from surgery, where doctors implanted a pacemaker, she was back in the gym, ready to start her healing journey and get back to volleyball, which was her life, she said.
“Volleyball has helped me through the toughest part of my life,” Lyon said. “It’s an escape, and I don't know what I would have done had I not had volleyball to kind of fall back on. Whatever's going on in the outside world, I know I can go into the gym and do something that I have loved for so long.”
As Lyon has grown, so has her strength, and now she wants nothing more than to help others like her and give facilities and teams the knowledge to save a teammate, a friend, an athlete.
Lyon is a setter for the Penn State women’s volleyball team and an ambassador for Huddle For Hearts.
Thank you for reading Female Athlete News. Lily Dorf is a student intern at Penn State University.