Do you know the sudden death of the athlete?

The images are chilling and will be remembered, those of the Danish Christian Eriksen collapsing on the lawn in Copenhagen, in a Euro match between his nation and that of Finland this Saturday, June 12. This type of cardio-respiratory arrest which affects thousands of athletes, amateurs or professionals, is a known phenomenon called “Sudden death of the athlete”, explanations.

It is an unfortunately frequent incident which affects thousands of athletes every year. This Saturday, June 12, in a group match of Euro 2020, between Denmark and Finland, one of the 22 players on the lawn, Christian Eriksen collapsed in the 44th minute. The latter suffered a cardiac arrest. Thanks to the responsiveness of the Danish captain, Simon Kjaer and emergency doctors operating the first aid measures: cardiac massage, defibrillation, the player Eriksen survived. This phenomenon which mainly affects athletes has a name, it is the ” sudden death “. According to the foundation Heart & Research, it is defined as “Natural death with sudden loss of consciousness within an hour of onset of symptoms, in a subject with or without known heart disease. The time and manner of occurrence are unexpected ”.

Asked about this by France Info, Doctor Gilles Boccara, anesthesiologist-resuscitator at the American Hospital of Paris explains this phenomenon and the heart attacks which are rampant in professional sport as in amateur sport. “There are cardiac pathologies that can be detected and which unfortunately can stop a professional career. […] But there are totally unpredictable situations where there will be, especially during recovery, if there is a very intense effort, dehydration when the effort is stopped. Like Eriksen, you could see he was recovering, walking quietly to get back to the sidelines. At the time of recovery, severe arrhythmias can occur in what is called ventricular fibrillations, so the maneuvers that save the patient at this time are only cardiac massage and defibrillation ”. Dr Boccara also explains that these first aid actions should be memorized, especially among amateur athletes. “It saved the life of this player, Eriksen. If it had not been for the early maneuvers of the medical team around the field, unfortunately, the outcome would not be the same ”.

The sudden death of the athlete is unpredictable. Sometimes it is a heart defect, sometimes it can be genetic. In 2019, The Parisian asks Professor François Carré, cardiologist in sport. The latter explains that “It is not physical activity that causes it, but the effort will reveal a cardiac abnormality that we had not detected before. When an athlete collapses and dies, an autopsy is usually performed. In 40 to 50% of cases, the cause is not found. In 2018, four footballers died, the examinations showed nothing “.

According to the Heart & Research Foundation, the survival rate for sudden death without major neurological sequelae remains below 3% in our country.