Ravens’ John Harbaugh offers health update on brother Jim Harbaugh after medical scare
By Brian Wacker, Baltimore Sun,
5 hours ago
Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh spoke with the media following practice in Owings Mills, Maryland. Kevin Richardson/Baltimore Sun/TNS
Ravens coach John Harbaugh said his younger brother Jim was feeling “a little off” on Saturday and Sunday but is “doing well” after speaking with him Monday morning.
The younger Harbaugh missed the start of the Los Angeles Chargers’ 23-16 win over the Broncos while being treated by the team’s medical personnel for an irregular heartbeat on Sunday. Evaluated before kickoff in Denver, he went to the locker room before returning to the sideline in the first quarter after getting an IV and magnesium.
Jim Harbaugh, 60, then coached the game and said he’d consult with his cardiologist Monday.
Meanwhile, John Harbaugh was about 20 minutes removed from a euphoric fourth straight win on Sunday and three questions into his postgame news conference when general manager Eric DeCosta told Ravens senior vice president of communications Chad Steele to cut the proceeding with the coach short so he could speak to his brother.
John Harbaugh then got on the phone with Chargers general manager and former Ravens director of player personnel Joe Hortiz, who was with Jim in the Chargers’ locker room.
“They were going through the tests and everything, trying to get his heart rate down and all that,” John Harbaugh said Monday in Owings Mills. “But we knew he wasn’t immediately in trouble at that point. They’d gotten him out of the blue tent at that point.
“Then, later he calmed down enough — I don’t think the doctors really wanted him to necessarily go out there, but they cleared him somehow. Somehow, he convinced them to clear him to go back out there on the field and he was fine.”
Jim Harbaugh said that he’s dealt with atrial flutter — a condition that can cause the heart to beat too quickly — for a while.
That included having an ablation procedure in 1999 to treat the irregular rhythms and a second one in 2012 when he was coach of the San Francisco 49ers.
“I haven’t felt it since 2012,” Harbaugh told reporters after the game. “I mean, it hasn’t happened, but the one in ’99, 13 years later, I had to have the [ablation] procedure done again, and so I figured I was getting close to the 13-year mark. I was going to need another one at some point.”
Still, it was a concerning moment for the Ravens coach, who said he appreciated the outpouring of messages he received.
“He’s doing great,” John said. “He’s feeling a lot better.”
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