PHOENIX — Twelve-year-old Liam Bowersox is already an accomplished BMX rider, winning first place in the 2022 USA BMX Finals. But before another competition in late 2023, Liam came down with a cold.
His mother, Diana, took him to the doctor. Everything looked fine but then their physician listened to Liam’s heart and noticed a murmur.
“She just looked at me and said ‘he has a murmur?’ I was like ‘no, absolutely not,’ and it was downhill from there,” Diana told ABC15.
Liam was soon diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy at Phoenix Children’s hospital.
“It is where the heart can become so big that it can become an obstruction to blood, actually leaving the heart,” explained Dr. Andrew Papez, division chief of cardiology at Phoenix Children’s. “Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is the number one cause of sudden cardiac death in athletes.”
Liam has kept a positive attitude through it all, even as doctors installed an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator. On Tuesday he was cleared to start easing back into his BMX biking.
Doctors and his family are encouraging everyone to get their annual physicals and urge them to consider heart screenings.
“Seeing your doctor for regular physical exams, filling out the forms you have to before you participate in sports and really taking it seriously because those are the screening tools that have been shown to be most effective in preventing sudden death in athletes,” said Papez.
The family is now partnering with the Anthony Bates Foundation to host multiple heart screening events.
You can continue to follow Liam’s journey on his Instagram page.
