Girl who collapsed on Foley track is home from hospital

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — Ava Covington returned to her Dewey Street home on Friday, March 25. The Bloomfield High School sophomore had collapsed at Foley Field during track practice, Tuesday, March 7, when her heart apparently stopped.

Quick-thinking coaches revived her using a defibrillator and administering CPR. The girl underwent open heart surgery on March 22 at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, in New York.

Tami Covington, her mother, in a telephone interview this past Tuesday, said Ava was up and walking but there is only so much a person can do after they have had their sternum cracked open.
“She played her cello for about 15 minutes,” Covington said.

Covington called the support her daughter received from the Bloomfield community amazing, fantastic and a blessing.
“We were in the hospital for 17 days,” she said. “But every single day, someone reached out, calling, texting, sending something. It was very much appreciated. This was her second open-heart surgery and it devastated her. Knowing everyone was behind her really helped her.”

As a 10-year-old, Ava had collapsed during a basketball scrimmage at Demarest Elementary School. An electrocardiogram determined the girl had a heart condition whereby her left coronary wrapped around to the right side of the heart and was consequently pinched, cutting blood flow. The condition is called an anomalous left coronary of the right valsalva.

Tests this time revealed that scar tissue, which had grown over the first surgery, was responsible for the Foley Field emergency.

“It’s slow,” Covington said of the recovery, “but she’s making progress. We’re hoping for homeschooling. There was no school yesterday but I’m sure they’ll send someone right out.”

All district schools were closed on Monday because of a four-day Easter break. Covington said the family’s Easter was laid-back. “We were just happy to be together in the same space,” she said.

When she first heard about her daughter collapsing, a horrified Covington was in midtown Manhattan where she works.

“Everything works out the way it should,” she said. “The coaching staff was more than amazing. Without their quick action, we wouldn’t have been preparing for open-heart surgery; we would have been preparing a funeral.”
As she mends, Ava will wait to be cleared by her cardiologist and pediatrician for her return to school. Her mother said she will probably return after spring break, which is April 11 to 14.