Cameroonian football player Patrick Ekeng collapsed in the middle of the Romanian league football match on Friday. He died in a Bucharest hospital in the evening.
These events, rare at a high level, are still shocking. Cameroonian footballer Patrick Ekeng, 26, died Friday night following a heart attack that occurred in the middle of the Romanian league match, a few minutes after coming into play.
The former Le Mans player (2009-2013) had, a priori, no known cardiac history. After only seven minutes played on the pitch in a match between his team, Dinamo Bucharest, against Viitorul Constanta, he collapsed alone, without any contact with another player. Urgently transported to a Bucharest hospital, the midfielder succumbed to his heart attack, despite an hour and a half of resuscitation attempts.
” I can not believe it. It’s a nightmare. For me, for the team and for all Dinamo supporters. It’s too much, ”reacted Ionel Danciulescu, general manager of the club. The reactions from the football community were immediate, with many players expressing their condolences via social media.
Rip Patrick Ekeng ????????
– Anthony Martial (@AnthonyMartial) May 6, 2016
Our cameroon football family has lost a brother. I cannot believe this. Condolences to his family. RIP Patrick Ekeng pic.twitter.com/lFRRrs4uhR
– Stephane Mbia (@StephaneMbia) May 6, 2016
Not an isolated event
The event is rare, but not totally isolated. It is reminiscent of the death in 2003 of another Cameroonian footballer, Marc-Vivien Foe, on the lawn of the Gerland stadium in Lyon during the semi-final of the Confederations Cup. As the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon faced the Colombia team, the defensive midfielder had collapsed in the center circle, live on television. He died 30 minutes after being admitted to hospital at the age of 28.
Quite regularly, similar deaths are recorded among professional footballers. The latest, Grégory Mertens, died on April 30, 2015, three days after a match in the Belgian championship during which he suffered a cardiac arrest. He was 24 years old.
1,000 deaths per year in France
Because what shocks beyond the brutality of these accidents, it is the youth of their victims, who are sportsmen and for whom the medical examinations did not raise anything worrying. And there are many. “In France, each year, around 1000 sudden deaths occur during or within the hour following a sporting activity. Only 15 to 20 concern high-level athletes, all the others are amateurs ”, underlines cardiologist Xavier Jouven, who heads the center of expertise on sudden death in adults.
Sudden deaths affect the vast majority of men (95%), and primarily footballers, cyclists and runners. Not all are so young – the average age is around 45 – and extensive medical examinations might have predicted a risk for some of them.
Prevention and defibrillators
In an attempt to prevent these deaths, the Academy of Medicine requested, in a 2012 report, that any death on a sports field be followed by a systematic autopsy. “It is fundamental for prevention, explained the cardiologist Xavier Jouven at the time. For the moment, we are very helpless to identify people at risk early ”.
In recent years, many gyms have been equipped with a cardiac defibrillator to deal with first aid in the event of cardiac arrest. In the medium term, their installation, together with training in its use, could be made compulsory.
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