In Heartbeat, Player’s Condition Revealed

Cal State Fullerton basketball player Josh Fischer underwent a procedure Tuesday for a heart condition anticipated by university trainers and mapped out on an EKG machine that had been sitting courtside at Fullerton practices.

Fischer, a senior forward, was held overnight at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange after exploratory surgery to examine an irregular heartbeat. He was diagnosed with a relatively benign arrhythmia.

Fischer had experienced rapid heart rates periodically since the summer, but was cleared to play after cardiologists were unable to reproduce the irregularity in stress tests that included an hourlong session on a treadmill.

After Fischer felt his heart beat rapidly at least twice during the first few days of practice, trainers borrowed an EKG machine from the university’s kinesiology department and placed it courtside.

“We just waited for [an irregularity] to come up,” said Will Filamor, one of Fullerton’s trainers.

“It seemed like the episodes increased as the days went on. It aroused my concern because it would happen during conditioning. I put my head together with other members of the training staff and we realized we had to get a reading on it.”

They got one two days later. Fischer was in the locker room after practice and felt his heart accelerating. He found Filamor, who had just wheeled the EKG machine into the training room.

“He was very calm,” Filamor said. “We sat him down, hooked him up, got the reading, then waited for his heart rate to settle down. It was one of his longer episodes,” lasting about seven minutes.

The EKG results were faxed to Fischer’s doctor, who recommended the exploratory procedure. Fischer had also experienced rapid heartbeats while trying to sleep and during classes.

Kelly Tucker, the cardiologist who conducted Tuesday’s procedure, said through a hospital spokeswoman that Fischer’s heart is “structurally normal” and that it was a “nonthreatening condition.”

Filamor said Fischer was placed on medication. Tucker has cleared Fischer to resume practice later this week.

Fischer, a La Habra High graduate, averaged six points and 3.3 rebounds last season. Fullerton, which went 5-22, begins play Nov. 17 at Pepperdine.