This is very sad, especially at the age of 22. Antonio Puerta Passes Away Sevilla player Antonio Puerta has died at the age of 22, two days after collapsing during his team's clash with Getafe CF. http://www.goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=396779
Wow...terrible thing to happen. Unfortunatly not everyones body is able to take the kind of strain that professional athletes put on themselves to compete at the level they do. This just seems like a case where his body just couldn't keep up with his football talent.
This is truly sad - 22 and a baby on the way. I'm also saddened that my next thought which was "I hope this wasn't related to performance enhancing drugs"
The news report I heard last night (FSC), mentioned that he had a previous condition - heart arythmia(sp.?)- for which he took medication. Obviously they thought it was under control. So, no, I don't believe PEDs are suspected. Whatever the reason, very sad news.
Some Zambian player died in Israel today during a practice match with his team, they dont know the cause yet but he collapsed and they couldnt revive him.How come its only soccer players this is happening to?
True - but young fit people generally don't have heart attacks - and soccer players usually fall into both categories. Sounds like the Sevilla player had a pre-exisiting medical condition - wonder if the same is true for the Zambian player or I wonder if it's a case of aggravated heat stroke. We've seen both recently in NA sports with Jiri Fischer having heart issues during a game and the Minnesota Vikings lineman who died of heat stroke in practice. I'd be interested to know if there were extenuating circumstances surround this latest death.
I thought it curious that they had him walk off the field. Stretchers are used for fake injuries ... meanwhile somebody has a heart attack, and they have to walk off the field! You could say they didn't know it was a heart attack. Well, to anyone it sure looked very serious.....
Well you need to be better articulated if thats the case. And I'm sure people in other sports die of heart attacks as well. Its just that there are so many soccer leagues across the world that the chances of one dying on a soccer pitch is far greater, than say a player dying on a baseball diamond.
Ya, there's been a big push in hockey to get defibrillators for every arena, and minor hockey buys them too ... The Red Wings had one, and that's why Jiri Fischer was revived. "If defibrillation is used within a few minutes of a cardiac arrest it can increase the chance of survival by up to 50%." Thing is, every minute is critical ... Then again, maybe defibrillators don't help as much as people think (that is, they are not as effective on athletes): http://www.thestar.com/Sports/article/169049 Interesting stat from that: "... in Canada 20-30 athletes die from sudden cardiac arrest every year. A U.S. specialist suggests that country's figure is 100 incidents per year." Also: "It is almost impossible to predict," said Klein. "All of us are prone to arrhythmia. The deaths in North America are usually caused by an undiscovered cardiomyopathy or hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (hidden heart problems) and can be either genetic or congenital (born with it)."
A Minnesota Viking player died a few years ago in pre-season. I think it was partially attributed to heat exhaustion. Cheers!
It could possibly be HCM which is the fit man under 30 heart threat killer, about 15 people die a day in the U.S. from this and 1 in 500 people have it. There is a good write up in the September issue on mens health about the disease. It mentioned basketball players Hank Gathers, Daniel Rumph and Reggie Lewis Died from this and also football player Thomas Herrion. The only way to know if you have it is to get an ultrasound of your heart. Either way it is just really sad. RIP.