AUSTIN, Texas — The first basketball practice Tionna Herron ever went to, she had chest pains. She thought they were just cramps, but they lasted until she got home. After a visit to the doctor, she was told she had mitral valve prolapse, but that it would get better over time.
“Basically, that it’ll get better as I grow, play more and get more in shape,” Herron says of the doctor’s diagnosis. “Just take Tylenol often for the pain.”
The pain didn’t necessarily go away over time, but Herron kept playing basketball. She fell in love with the game and says it became her outlet. She was also very good. As a junior, Herron helped DeSoto win a state title in the spring of of 2021 and was receiving interest from colleges across the country. She was ready to have a big senior season when the pain came back.
“It started happening again. I was having an abnormal heart rhythm,” says Herron. “That’s what made my mom go back to the doctor.”
Multiple visits to the doctor followed, but still no clear answers to what was wrong with her. So Herron played through the pain and helped DeSoto win back-to-back titles. Along the way, she committed to play at Kentucky. While her original cardiologist said Herron didn’t need surgery, her new school wanted a second opinion and sent her to get more tests done. They did a different test, called a catheterization, that showed the real problem.
“They found that my heart wasn’t pumping enough blood, which means I wasn’t getting enough oxygen,” says Herron. “They said they were going to have a meeting with all the doctors and figure out if they wanted me to have surgery. I was just praying that I wouldn’t have to, but I knew I had to.”
Herron had a congenital heart defect. She would need open heart surgery to repair her arteries. The surgery was a success, but a long road to recovery was in front of her.
“It was definitely tiring, I had to be home two out of the three months before I was cleared,” says Herron. “Once I got to Kentucky I starter my actual rehab.”
Back at school but away from home, Herron was struggling. Not being able to play basketball and being a long way from home, she says it was kind of depressing and put her in a bad state of mind. Ultimately, she decided to transfer back to her home state and to The University of Texas.
“It’s like a full circle moment because I thought I’d wanted to come here when I was little,” says Herron. “I’m just forever grateful to be able to come back home.”
At UT she’s under the close watch of doctors and trainers as well as sports performance coach Zack Zillner.
“Tionna and I will check in everyday just to see how she’s feeling,” says Zillner. “We have her hooked up to all this sports technology to keep all the metrics on her, to keep her safe.”
Herron has put in a lot of work since her surgery and returned to the court for her first action in college at the beginning of this season. She scored her first points as a Longhorn back on Nov. 14, when she had six coming off the bench against UT-Arlington. Just this past week she got her first basket in Big 12 play, in the Longhorns win over Kansas.
“Now it’s just up to her to keep pushing further and further, because she’s still got a long way to go,” says Zillner. “But I think with this newfound confidence, it’s going to allow her to even be better than she was before the injury.”
“It was really difficult knowing that I had to sit out for so long, I knew that the comeback was gong to be really hard and it has been,” says Herron. “But I feel like I’m getting progress.”
Her health scare has motivated Herron to share her story and give back to the community. She does work with the American Heart Association and Texas Children’s Hospital.