Antonio Puerta dies

[rcgills]

According to Marca, Antonio Puerta, the Sevilla player who collapsed during their game against Getafe on Saturday, died this afternoon. Very sad loss for Spanish football

[GaNgStA kEeKs]

Wow - what a sad end to his life. Only 22 aswell.

Makes you wonder doesnt it

RIP

[all_funkt_up]

Very sad. Only saw bits of it on SS News RC. What exactly happened? Was it a clash of heads or a Marc Vivien Foe "drop dead" incident?

[rcgills]

Neither really. It wasn't a clash of heads or anything, but nor did he die immediately like Foe did (if I remember rightly). He just dropped to the ground, players went running over to him, one put their hand in his mouth to stop him swallowing his tongue, then the doctors came out. But he looked to be OK, he sat up, walked off the pitch unaided, but then the same thing happened again when he got to the changing rooms. Suffered cardiac arrest, had to be resuscitated, and was taken to intensive care, and he was there from Saturday evening until today.

There were videos around on the net before, as the game was live on TV over here and obviously the cameras filmed everything. Now that he's actually died I'm not sure whether the videos will have been taken down out of respect.

[all_funkt_up]

Nah mate - they will stay up you can be sure of that. Just checked youtube and they're still there. Youtube dont have the inclination to remove them.

Very very sad indeed.

[all_funkt_up]

Here's a story from goal.com - following a quote from a team mate of his. Looks like he had fainted before and the problem was known, but they didnt establish what caused them.


Puerta's Fainting Problem Was Well Known - Fabiano Brazilian striker Luis Fabiano has spoken to São Paulo broadcaster rádio Jovem Pan and explained that the fainting problem that has kept team-mate Antonio Puerta in intensive care was well-known…




Antonio Puerta is still in critical condition after losing consciousness not once but twice during the Saturday match against Getafe in the Sánchez Pizjuan stadium in scenes initially horribly reminiscent of previous deaths.

Benfica’s Hungarian forward Miklós Fehér dropped in an eerily similar way in January 2004 and Cameroon's Marc Vivien Foe's sudden death at the Confederations Cup in June 2003 is also another tragic death etched on the memories of fans across the world.

Both players had suffered from unknown heart conditions that brought on their untimely deaths, doctors discovering the defects in post-mortem exams. So far it isn’t known if Antonio Puerta has been suffering from any cardiac problems, but the warning signs were there.

The first time against Getafe the Spaniard dropped to the floor like a stone and the panic-stricken reactions of his team-mates was, in Luis Fabiano’s eyes, due to the fact that the player had fainted previously and his colleagues were aware of the danger.

In an interview with rádio Jovem Pan the Brazilian forward was understandably depressed by the events and sounded exasperated that the problem wasn't a bolt from the blue. "He’d already fainted twice before, although the others weren’t as serious as this one”, he began.

“He’d fainted like that once at half time at the end of last season. It was a friendly [Luis Fabiano didn’t specify the match] and it was really hot, but as he recovered later on we all put it down to the heat.”

"The other time was during training and he fell in exactly the same way he did on Saturday. But he walked away and we thought it was heat exhaustion again as it was boiling then as well", he added

The events on Saturday were, however, far-reaching as after an apparent recovery – the same as Luis Fabiano had described, the player collapsed and had to be taken to the Virgen del Rocio hospital by ambulance.

22 year-old Puerta is in danger of suffering permanent brain damage after his heart stopped and the oxygen supply was cut. He’s currently on an iron lung and sedated in hospital with a steady stream of visitors wishing him well.

There is hope that he may, however, make a full recovery and doctors are holding out hope that an improvement is in the offing. Readers wanting to send a message of support can do so via a Sevilla FC e-mail address ('Puerta we're with you'): puertaestamoscontigo@sevillafc.es