EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Los Angeles Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh was back at the team facility Monday, a day after he left the sideline briefly in the first quarter of a 23-16 win over the Denver Broncos to receive treatment for an arrhythmia. Harbaugh said he met with a cardiologist Monday morning.
The cardiologist confirmed the condition is an “atrial flutter,” Harbaugh said. An atrial flutter is a heart rhythm disorder that can cause the organ’s upper chambers to beat too quickly. Harbaugh said Sunday night after the game that he believed the situation was an atrial flutter “episode.”
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Harbaugh was wearing a heart monitor underneath his white Chargers polo during his news conference Monday. Harbaugh said he will be wearing the monitor for two weeks before being reassessed. Harbaugh said he received two medications as part of his treatment — a blood thinner and “a common medicine that doesn’t let your heart rate spike.”
“That’s the issue I’ve had: It spikes way up for a certain amount of time and then goes too low,” Harbaugh said. “So there’s medicine now that it’ll keep right in the sweet spot.”
Harbaugh said there is a still a chance he could need a cardiac ablation. That decision will come after the two-week monitoring period, he said. According to the Mayo Clinic, a cardiac ablation is a procedure that “uses heat or cold energy to create tiny scars in the heart.” Those scars “block faulty heart signals and restore a typical heartbeat.”
On Sunday evening, Harbaugh said this was his third atrial flutter episode. He had one in 1999 as a player and another while coaching for the San Francisco 49ers in 2012. Harbaugh said Sunday that he received an ablation to treat each of those two episodes.
“I now have a real good understanding of just what to do, how it needs to be treated with medicine or ablation or both,” Harbaugh said Monday. “Pretty confident on this one that I know what it is and how to deal with it. But as always, we’ll trust the doctors and they’ll tell me what to do.”
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Harbaugh said he spoke with his brother John, as well as his parents, Jack and Jackie, and his wife, Sarah, following Sunday’s episode. John, the Baltimore Ravens coach, cut his postgame news conference short Sunday when the Baltimore public relations staff became aware of his brother’s ongoing situation.
When asked if his family is comfortable with him continuing to coach with this medical issue, Harbaugh said, “They know how deeply committed I am. It would take my heart stopping for me not to be out there on the sideline.”
Harbaugh said he first started feeling symptoms before the team left for Denver on Saturday. Quarterback Justin Herbert said Sunday that Harbaugh mentioned feeling “really excited for the game” on Saturday night.
“He said his blood was flowing and he was excited,” Herbert said. “So I thought everything was good to go.”
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On the excitement, Harbaugh said he remembered thinking: “I don’t know if I’m really fired up for the game or this is my arrhythmia kicking back in. Could be one or the other. I wasn’t sure.”
Harbaugh left for a series early in the first quarter before returning to the sideline. Defensive coordinator Jesse Minter served as the interim coach in Harbaugh’s absence.
“That was just a battlefield decision right there,” Harbaugh said of Minter taking over.
Minter is on the sideline on game days, whereas offensive coordinator Greg Roman is in the press box.
Harbaugh said Sunday he received an electrocardiogram and an IV in the locker room. He also said he got a magnesium medication from Chargers director of player health, wellness and performance Marco Zucconi.
“Getting it addressed,” Harbaugh said Monday, “and back at it.”
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(Photo: Matthew Stockman / Getty Images)
