AVON LAKE, Ohio — When it comes to sports, 28-year-old James Pappenfuss is a major playmaker. From football to basketball, he's into them all. The shrine in his room says so.
"My favorite one is soccer," James said of one of the jersey's hanging up in his room.
He's been playing since he was a boy, and on other adaptive sports teams.
"I don't think there's a local sport that he's not playing," James' dad Jim told us. "And with the physical and cognitive challenges he's had, we've been able to keep moving forward and having him play all these sports. There was a period of time when he couldn't."
As a boy, James had braces on his feet and ankles and other challenges.
"He was very unsteady on his feet. His first cognitive challenge," Jim explained. "Besides the fact that he's on the autism spectrum, he had brain surgery at age 9 to stop seizures."
But with every challenge, James bounced back. Even as a teen, when sidelined for two years for corrective surgery to his feet. Then in July of 2021, he faced his biggest test yet.
"He goes to get dressed in the morning, and he comes out to see me and he says, 'Dad, I can't get my shoes on,' and I looked and his feet and his ankles were way swollen," Jim said. "Within two hours, they had him in an ambulance going over to Fairview Cleveland Clinic to the heart unit over there."
James was in congestive heart failure.
"Shocking, scary," Jim remembered. "I just didn't know what was going on."
James had an ejection fraction of 9%. That's a measure of how much blood the left ventricle pumps out to the body with each heartbeat. A normal range is between 55%-65%.
He was quickly put under the care of Cleveland Clinic cardiologist Dr. Randall Starling.
"I would say his condition was critical," Starling said. "He could easily continue to worsen, and his only option may be a transplant or a left ventricular assist device."
But James has something special inside of him: An insatiable will to live. He started on several medications to relieve stress on his heart, along with cardiac therapy.
As the months went on, he began to feel better.
"Yeah, I have more energy, because I was happy," James noted. "Because I have great doctors."
Then, things went from good to remarkable.
"Last Dec. 4, in 2023, we met with Dr. Starling and he was all smiles," Jim shared. "He said, 'Jim, I've got to tell you, James is back to normal. His ejection fraction is back to normal."
An outcome for which Starling will never take for granted.
"I can't even articulate the feeling when you're able to provide a patient with that degree of benefit just with medication," Starling said.
"It's amazing," James said. "I'm glad Dr. Starling made my day."
"I think he made your life, buddy," Jim told him. "More than you made your day."
He's the bounce back kid, only this time, James is better than ever.
"He's one of the happiest people I know," Jim said.
For anyone who's waiting to come off the bench, James has a message for you.
"Hope you guys get better and get back to playing sports!"
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