At Christmas he just sits there, at the table, with family. Without tubes or monitors attached to his body. Three months ago this was anything but obvious for Lars Nabbe (23) from Sambeek. He previously had heart problems, but doctors allowed him to play football again. However, he suffered a cardiac arrest during a football match, which he barely survived.
It was borderline. Lars was in a coma for forty hours. His leaking heart valve was repaired at the Radboud University Medical Center and he received an ICD, an internal defibrillator. “That provides certainty. It is a kind of backup.” His heart beats differently now, he says. “Calmer, less impulsive. Only afterwards do I notice how restless it was. That feels very reassuring.”
What exactly caused the cardiac arrest is still unclear. Lars had had heart problems for some time. That’s why he had to give up his professional dream at VVV Venlo. An inflammation had left scars. His heart valve was also leaking, now more seriously than before.
“I just had a lot of bad luck.”
“That combination could have been a trigger, but I also just had a lot of bad luck,” he says. There were no signs. Just before the heart attack, he had flagged at his girlfriend and sisters’ match. Only in the last few seconds did he suddenly feel dizzy. “Then you realize, this could happen at any moment.”
He remembers almost nothing about the cardiac arrest itself. He knows the story from others. His mother ran onto the field and immediately started CPR. Lukas Vorstermans, captain of the opposing team, also helped. “We have had a lot of contact and seen each other. He is a fantastic guest and we have built a special bond.”
“They had a completely different image of me, even though I was doing very well.”
“I’m doing well,” he says now three months later. “I no longer have pain, I can do more and more and my weekends are fairly normal again, except for sports.”
The first weeks after his release from the hospital were strange. Everywhere he met people who had not seen him for weeks and thought he was doing poorly. “They had a very different image of me, even though I was doing very well. It was a very special period.”
“I’m not going to live in fear.”
The visible scars don’t bother him. “It is a memory of a special time.” Mentally he feels strong. He is not afraid of another cardiac arrest. “That is not in line with expectations. And if it is so, then so be it. I am not going to live in fear.”
Yet he realizes that it is sometimes more difficult for those around him than for himself. His girlfriend can still get emotional about it, just like people who saw it happen. “That makes perfect sense. What I find most annoying is that they have to process that image.”
“I actually enjoyed seeing and speaking to everyone again.”
Sports are not allowed for the time being, but Lars is there every week with his football team. “Many people asked if it didn’t feel strange to come again. I actually enjoyed seeing and speaking to everyone again.”
When he had to quit professional football due to heart problems in 2020, he became Sambeek’s coach. He hasn’t been asked again yet. “They also know that my ambition does not lie here.” Lars has another ambition: to take over his father’s window frame company in the future.
“You sit together and you realize: it was close.”
His rehabilitation will start in January with eight weeks in Radboud. A combination of physiology, cardiology, psychology and nutrition, together with other fellow sufferers. “They’re just a lot older. The cardiologist said: ‘You’re going to be bored out of your mind, but you have to get through it.'” Lars will then be given the opportunity to continue his rehabilitation at Papendal, with his current sports cardiologist.
“From there they will encourage me to become fitter, at the right pace. I want to tackle it responsibly and get the most out of it. My goal is to become as fit as I was, or even fitter.” He doesn’t know yet whether he will ever play football again. “I no longer have the ambition to play high football. Maybe I will still get that.”
This Christmas feels different than any other. “You sit together and you realize: it was close.” At the same time, gratitude dominates. “We can look ahead again. I’m still here. That’s the most important thing. We’ll enjoy that even more at Christmas.”
