The death of the Koh-Lanta candidate is attributable to heart failure due to dilated heart disease. An often congenital pathology of the heart, difficult to detect when it occurs during life.
New twist in Koh-Lanta. The death of the candidate of TF1’s flagship reality TV game Gérald Babin would ultimately be due to “heart failure on dilated heart disease”, a pathology of the heart, according to the conclusions of a pre-autopsy report made public on April 5, 2013 by the Créteil prosecutor’s office. The news comes a few days after the results of a first autopsy which affirmed that the candidate did not suffer from any cardiac or vascular abnormalities. Moreover, forensic examinations did not lead to the discovery of any trace of anabolic or “toxic or narcotic drug substance” in Gerald Babin’s body. These examinations only noted the presence of “medicinal substances at therapeutic concentration,” said the press release. What is this pathology? Was she detectable? Dr Alain Ducardonnet, cardiologist and founding resident of the sports cardiologists club explains.
New twist in Koh-Lanta. The death of the candidate of TF1’s flagship reality TV game Gérald Babin would ultimately be due to “heart failure on dilated heart disease”, a pathology of the heart, according to the conclusions of a pre-autopsy report made public on April 5, 2013 by the Créteil prosecutor’s office. The news comes a few days after the results of a first autopsy which affirmed that the candidate did not suffer from any cardiac or vascular abnormalities. Moreover, forensic examinations did not lead to the discovery of any trace of anabolic or “toxic or narcotic drug substance” in Gerald Babin’s body. These examinations only noted the presence of “medicinal substances at therapeutic concentration,” said the press release. What is this pathology? Was she detectable? Dr Alain Ducardonnet, cardiologist and founding resident of the sports cardiologists club explains.
Origin and people affected
Dr Alain Ducardonnet. “Dilated cardiomyopathy is an alteration of the heart muscle which is most often of congenital origin and which means that this muscle over the years (and that is the real problem) will become less and less effective. And since the heart is less toned, the heart cavity will dilate and the heart will then become relatively insufficient, that is to say unable to do the work that is usually asked of it. One of the other complications of this pathology is often that this heart muscle which is initially damaged can have small fibrous lesions which trigger arrhythmias and which by ventricular fibrillation can induce sudden death. The problem with this pathology is that we only have the visible side of the iceberg. Because its causes can be various. It can be due either to a poor quality of the original myocardial tissue, or to appear after heart disease, which by amputation of the heart muscle will give a dilated heart. There are therefore several populations in this pathology. In young subjects, it is most classically a defect in the structure of the heart muscle.
The reasons for the first white autopsy
Dr Alain Ducardonnet. ” When we did a macroscopic analysis of the subject’s heart muscle, we must have thought that his muscle was about the normal size and thickness, the cavity was perhaps a little dilated, but we remembered no doubt this person was playing sports. And it is known that in sports people the size of the cavity increases a little, with at the same time an increase in the thickness of the heart muscle. And in a second step, and this is what is conventionally done in autopsies, we had to do a histological analysis of the heart muscle. We then surely realized that in fact, the candidate did not have a normal muscle. “.
The interest of an ecocardiography for the detection
Dr Alain Ducardonnet. “There are two types of questions to ask. On a subject who wants to play sports at a high level, should we do what the European texts recommend, that is to say that it is enough to do a clinical examination and an electrocardiogram in young subjects? . Or should we consider a candidate from Koh-Lanta as a high-level athlete and offer him the assessment imposed by the federations in the supervision of their high-level athletes, that is to say the electrocardiogram, echocardiography and stress test? Still, dilated cardiomyopathy, especially in young people, can remain asymptomatic for a very long time and the only way to make the diagnosis would be an ecocardiogram. It is also necessary that the pathology is sufficiently advanced for us to realize it during this examination ”.
“The investigations are continuing to determine the exact circumstances in which the fatal discomfort of Mr. Babin took place and the conditions of his medical care”, continues the prosecution. They will be supplemented by any medical element concerning the state of health of the young man who died at 25 years old and “his ability to participate in the game show”, concludes the same source. As a reminder, Gérald Babin died on the first day of filming of the 16th season of Koh-Lanta, on the island of Koh Rong in Cambodia. After this event, TF1 announced the cancellation of the 2013 season and all the candidates returned home.
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