After a jog one Friday evening last fall, Devon Sandoval got a call from his cardiologist and was told he should go to the emergency room.
For weeks, the New Mexico United soccer player had been feeling a little off. What started with minimal chest discomfort after practices progressed to mild shortness of breath.
After running some tests, doctors discovered Sandoval had elevated troponin levels, which is a diagnostic marker of damage to the heart.
“I was told, ‘Go to UNMH – that’s where you want to go,’” the 30-year-old athlete said. “So, I drove myself to the hospital and went to the ER.”
After getting more tests and imaging done at The University of New Mexico Hospital and finding nothing of note, Jim Blankenship, MD, MHCM, decided to perform a cardiac catheterization procedure to get a closer look at Sandoval’s heart.
That’s when two blood clots were discovered.
One of the clots was in the middle of the left anterior descending artery, blocking it at 50%, and the other was positioned in the distal end of the artery, blocking it at 100%.
Blankenship was able to dislodge and clear one of the clots by performing a balloon angioplasty. When it was discovered that the other clot could not be cleared during the procedure, Blankenship decided against what would normally be the standard operating procedure of placing a stent in Sandoval’s artery, and instead treated the clot with blood thinner medication.
In his case, I thought that because he’s a young guy and he’s a professional athlete, I didn’t want him to go back onto the soccer field with a piece of metal in his artery. Even though 95 times out of 100 they work out just fine, once in a while they don’t. Sometimes less is more.
“In his case, I thought that because he’s a young guy and he’s a professional athlete, I didn’t want him to go back onto the soccer field with a piece of metal in his artery,” he said. “Even though 95 times out of 100 they work out just fine, once in a while, they don’t. Sometimes, less is more.”
A month after his three-day hospital stay, Sandoval started cardiac rehabilitation at UNMH. He said attending the rehabilitation clinic was a “genuinely enjoyable” experience because he couldn’t wait to get back into exercising and training after having to temporarily ease up on physical activity.
“At my first session, they put me on a treadmill and started having me run, and the treadmill – it was a little bit older – it couldn’t keep up,” he said. “It was awesome to start running again.”
When Blankenship took another look at Sandoval’s heart a few months later to see how the clot had changed after the blood thinner medication and cardiac rehabilitation, he was pleasantly surprised to see a clean artery.
“The artery looked just perfect. I was ecstatic,” Blankenship said. “Sometimes the body can heal itself with a little bit of help.”
Even though the artery was clear, Sandoval said Blankenship was still wary about clearing him to go back to work.
“He gave me the green light to train and do anything I wanted – except to play professional soccer, which, you know, is my job,” Sandoval said.
Because he’d never worked with a professional athlete before, Blankenship told Sandoval he would feel more comfortable if someone with more experience working with athletes was the one to clear Sandoval to play soccer.
“He was honest and super transparent, which I loved,” Sandoval said. “Not a lot of doctors would do that, I think. I’m very grateful for him for being that honest and self-aware.”
Sandoval was able to find a cardiologist in Denver, Colo. who cleared him to play soccer professionally.
On May 19, after being out for seven months, Sandoval announced he had officially re-signed with New Mexico United.
An Albuquerque native, Sandoval has been devoted to New Mexico United since Day One. In June 2018, he became the first person to sign with the then newly formed team. Before that, he played soccer at Eldorado High School and UNM.
His first game back on the field was scheduled for May 24. To honor the occasion, he invited the cardiac rehabilitation team to watch the game.
Those guys, they all pushed me really, really hard. Even from the very first session we had, they made me feel very confident in myself. I don’t think I’d have the opportunity to play again if it wasn’t for them.
“Those guys, they all pushed me really, really hard. Even from the very first session we had, they made me feel very confident in myself,” Sandoval said. “I don’t think I’d have the opportunity to play again if it wasn’t for them.”
Blankenship said that one of the important lessons for the general public is that Sandoval didn’t dismiss his initial symptoms. He made the right choice to get himself checked out by a cardiologist at the first sign of chest discomfort, Blankenship said.
“A lot of times, people ignore the warning signs,” Blankenship said. “If you have something you’re worried about, you need to get it checked out.”
As for why the blood clots appeared in the first place, Sandoval doesn’t have a clue. He does have some family history of cardiac issues, although, “Nobody was this young and nobody took care of themselves the way they should have, probably.”
“It’s a little bit of a mystery, but I’m at peace with that,” he said. “I’m feeling good, and I just have to try to make this most of this situation and treat it as an opportunity to grow and learn and become a better person in all aspects in my life.”