LSU's Kim Mulkey Shares She Had Heart Surgery After Accidental Discovery Of Life-Threatening Condition

"I'm still kind of in shock."

LSU women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey opened up to ESPN about a fortuitous string of events that led to a life-saving heart procedure over the summer.

Mulkey, 61, said she began experiencing a little numbness on the tip of her finger back in May, just one month after the Tigers defeated Iowa to clinch the national championship.

At the same doctor’s visit where she received the common diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome, Mulkey asked for a scan of her neck as a follow-up to the disc-replacement surgery she had in 2018. While that x-ray didn’t find anything wrong with her neck, it did uncover a coronary artery that had 95-99% blockage.

"I never even felt bad," Mulkey told ESPN. "I'm still kind of in shock that we accidentally found this. So my message in sharing this is, if you're over 50, go get a stress test.”

"I've had some of my former teammates tell me, 'We're going to do it.' That's why I share these things,” she continued. “I'm an open book if it's something that can help people. It's just a great lesson for all of us who think that it won't happen to us."

In June, Mulkey had emergency surgery to have two stents placed in the plaque-obstructed artery.  Without it, her doctor said she would have eventually had a heart attack.

"As an athlete, your body gives you signals with injuries. And even with non-athletic things like kidney stones, you definitely feel it," Mulkey told ESPN. "The issue with my heart, it was really just luck that we found it. So I will keep telling people, 'Get yourself checked out. You have nothing to lose, and it could save your life.”

It’s been a busy time for Mulkey. Earlier this month she signed a record 10-year, $36 million contract extension with LSU, making her the highest-paid coach in women’s basketball history. 

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