- Kate McCarthy was part of Channel 7’s AFL commentary team
- Elated after Brisbane Lions win AFL Grand Final at MCG
- Another cause for celebration as the club’s AFLW team claimed a win
- He suffered an episode on Monday and is expected to make a full recovery.
Football commentator Kate McCarthy is recovering after being hospitalized with a heart problem following the jubilation of both Brisbane Aussie Rules teams’ victory over the weekend.
The former Brisbane Lions and All Australian player was on cloud nine last weekend, where she was part of Channel 7’s game day AFL grand final coverage at the MCG, where the Lions defeated the Sydney Swans by 60 points.
She was elated on Sunday when Brisbane’s AFLW team beat the Adelaide Crows in a two-point thriller at home, but McCarthy was then left stunned by her ongoing health battle at the airport on Monday.
“When @brisbanelions and @lionsaflw double over the weekend it gives you ventricular tachycardia (a type of abnormal heart rhythm or arrhythmia),” McCarthy wrote on social media.
“Now we are improving, but the check on Monday night shows that the pacemaker acts like swans on the big stage.”
The scare comes when McCarthy has had a pacemaker since he was 12 due to childhood seizures.
McCarthy was initially diagnosed with “intermittent 3” heart block when he was a toddler and eventually had a pacemaker inserted in high school.
‘An ambulance arrived and I had a seizure in the ambulance, then another in the emergency department. “I think I had seven seizures that day,” McCarthy previously told The Associated Press. AthletesVoice.
Soccer commentator Kate McCarthy recovers after being hospitalized with a heart scare
Kate McCarthy, who suffers from heart disease, had a scare after suffering an episode of ventricular tachycardia (VT) on Monday.
In her days as an AFLW player, Kate McCarthy was an all-Australian representative when she was on the books of the Brisbane Lions.
‘When I had my seizures, I would lose consciousness for about 20 or 30 seconds while the seizure was happening, and then I would go back to normal.
‘I think the most worrying thing for mum and dad was that I really liked sport: I did triathlons, so I swam a lot and cycled.
“They were really worried about what would happen if something happened while I was swimming or cycling.
“So I had emergency surgery the next day, they put in a pacemaker and everything was taken care of from there. Since then it hasn’t happened again.
A qualified teacher, McCarthy represented the Lions, St Kilda and Hawthorn before ending her AFLW career in 2022.
She is now considered a rising football media star and is a key figure in Channel 7’s AFL and AFLW coverage.
McCarthy is earning plenty of plaudits as co-host of panel shows Armchair Experts and Talking W.