After cardiac arrest of LeBron James' son, what do Austin student athletes need to know?

On Monday, Bronny James, the 18-year-old son of basketball star LeBron James, collapsed during a workout at the University of Southern California. He had a sudden cardiac arrest and was taken to the hospital, where he is recovering.

Bronny James had planned to play basketball at USC in the fall.

This event follows the cardiac arrest in January of Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin during a Monday Night Football game. Hamlin is now back in practice and expected to play this season.

With the fall sports season just around the corner, what should local parents of student-athletes know about their child's heart health before their kids head out to the practice field? We asked Dr. Peter Monteleone, an interventional cardiologist at the Institute for Cardiovascular Health, a partnership between Dell Medical School at the University of Texas' UT Health Austin and Ascension Texas.

More: Bronny James, son of LeBron, in stable condition after cardiac arrest at USC basketball practice

How can we catch a child's heart problem before a cardiac arrest?

Monteleone said children should let their parents and doctors know if they have any of these symptoms:

• Chest pain

• A sensation of the heart racing or fluttering

"Even if it's mild, they need to talk to the family," Monteleone said.

Families should also let doctors know about:

• A family history of cardiac arrests.

• A family history of having a defibrillator, especially at a young age.

What can cause a cardiac arrest on the field or during a workout?

"There are so many different things that can be the cause of this," Monteleone said.

In Hamlin's case, he suffered a blow to his chest at the exact time his heart was recycling its rhythm. It caused his heart to go into an irregular heartbeat or an arrhythmia called ventricular fibrillation.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy also can cause an irregular heartbeat in young athletes. This condition is caused by a thickening or hardening of the left ventricle walls, which make it difficult for the heart to pump enough blood during each heartbeat.

Young athletes could have a congenital heart defect or a genetic condition that affects the health of the heart.

It's not just famous athletes that this can happen to. In January, an 11-year-old Austin girl collapsed on the soccer field during practice. After Sabine Barrett was revived on the field and taken by STAR Flight to Dell Children's, doctors found an abnormality of her left coronary artery that had caused the arrythmia and cardiac arrest. Doctors were able to fix it with surgery and Sabine was able to return to the field.

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How can families know if their child has a heart condition?

Children should be doing their annual well-check visits along with sports physicals. Organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Sports Medicine have not yet recommended a screening test such as an electrocardiogram or cardiac ultrasound for all teenage athletes, but they have been having discussions about this, Monteleone said.

Families can get a free heart screening (an electrocardiogram) for their student athletes through Championship Hearts Foundation. Register at chamhearts.org for these upcoming screenings:

• 8 a.m.-noon Aug. 26, Austin Regional Clinic, 2785 E. Seventh St.

• 8 a.m.-noon Sept. 9, Dell Children's Specialty Pavilion, 4910 Mueller Blvd.

Last fall, a Championship Hearts Foundation screening found a heart problem in a local Vandegrift High School football player. Hudson Moore was diagnosed with an extra electrical pathway in his heart, which caused an abnormal rhythm. He was able to have an ablation done on his heart to prevent future arrhythmia and return to the team. Hudson never realized his heart was abnormal and could have gone into sudden cardiac arrest.

Can all kids return to playing after a cardiac arrest?

It depends on what caused the problem. Sometimes there is a fix such as an ablation or another kind of surgery, sometimes a defibrillator is placed to shock the heart into rhythm if it happens again.

"There are certain conditions, where if that was the case, someone should not play sports in the future," Monteleone said.

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What can parents, schools and coaches do to prepare?

While these cases are rare, teams should be prepared for an emergency like this one by doing these things:

• Teach CPR to the people on the sideline, parents and even teammates. "This is the biggest difference maker," Monteleone said.

• Have an AED (automated external defibrillator) on the sidelines at all practices and games.

• Have a cellphone handy to call 9-1-1.

• Do education about the signs and symptoms of an abnormal heartbeat.

• Keep kids hydrated during practices and games. Dehydration can make a preexisting heart condition worse, Monteleone said.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: How do you prevent cardiac arrest in young athletes like Bronny James?