UCI’s Korfman Hopes to Play Again This Year

UC Irvine center Dave Korfman said Tuesday that he feels lucky following surgery to remove a blood clot from his brain that occurred after he blacked out and fell while lifting weights.

Wearing a skull cap, Korfman sat in a small room at the Bren Center looking tired and drawn as he quietly answered questions for the first time since he was injured New Year’s Day.

He thanked all those involved, including doctors who operated on him at Hoag Memorial Presbyterian Hospital. The 7-foot-2 Korfman called the turn of events “a freak thing.” He said tests have not turned up anything wrong, but that he is expected to undergo further tests when he regains some strength.

After he was rushed to Hoag, doctors drained blood from his brain and placed two steel plates in the back of his skull to protect the area from permanent damage.

Irvine officials have not put a timetable on Korfman’s return, but if he does, Korfman, a transfer from MiraCosta College, will probably have to wear a protective helmet for at least a year.

Korfman said that won’t deter him.

“[Doctors] are still giving me that chance [to return this year],” Korfman said. “They haven’t taken away my shoes yet. . . . I’m one lucky guy.”

Recalling the day of the accident, Korfman said he and teammate Malachi Edmond took their time getting to the weight room after a three hour basketball practice and arrived at Crawford Hall after most of their teammates had left.

Assistant men’s basketball coach Tim Cleary and Edmond were in the room when Korfman loaded 115 pounds on a weight bar and attempted to hoist it over his head in a move called a squat press.

“It’s an amount of weight--something I handle all the time,” the 285-pound Korfman said.

But on his first thrust, Korfman said that he collapsed. He doesn’t remember much after that.

“When I woke up I could feel the bump on my head, but I couldn’t feel my [left] leg to my [left hand]. It was all numb.”

Edmond and Cleary, who were not available Tuesday, told Korfman that he had dropped the weight bar on his chest and that the back of his head hit an adjacent wall as he collapsed. Edmond and Cleary summoned paramedics, who arrived to find Korfman laying on the floor.

“Tim Cleary and Mal made the right decisions [about what to do] and they acted real quickly,” Korfman said.