Football player who died in Knoxville had problem heart valve

Football player who died in Knoxville had problem heart valve

KNOXVILLE (WATE) -- A Kingsport football player who died during a game in Knoxville earlier this year had a heart valve problem, according to the medical examiner's report.

Andrew "Jake" Logue, 18, was a lineman for Sullivan South High School. He died during the season opener against West High School in August after he went into cardiac arrest during a play.

The Knox County Medical Examiner's Office report says Logue was apparently healthy and died naturally. It also says his cause of death was a bicuspid aortic valve.

Normally, the aortic valve allows oxygen-rich blood to flow from the heart to the aorta. It prevents the blood from flowing back from the aorta into the heart when the pumping chamber relaxes.

A bicuspid aortic valve, however, allows leakage of blood back into the pumping chamber.

It's present at birth. It develops during the early weeks of pregnancy, when the baby's heart develops.

Most of the time, a bicuspid aortic valve isn't diagnosed in infants or children because it causes no symptoms. However, the abnormal valve can leak or become narrow.

The cause of this problem isn't clear, but it's the most common congenital heart disease and often runs in families. It also occurs more in males than females.

West High School held a memorial for Logue the night after the game.

And in Kingsport the next week, hundreds of people packed into the Sullivan South High School gym to honor Logue.