Just a few days after Fabrice Muamba’s dire situation, world football saw another serious stroke and this time in India.
Bangalore midfielder Venkatesh passed away after collapsing from an Indian league game on Thursday. The 27-year-old came on the pitch in the 73rd minute and lost consciousness at the end of the match. According to teammate Janardhan, there was no doctor present at that time, so he and a medical staff of the club struggled to perform the simplest first aid operations.
And yet, after that, no ambulance was brought in in time. The people in charge at this stadium justified that the doctor was waiting at the east door but could not reach the scene because there were too many 2-wheelers around.
This led players and officials of Bangalore Mars to manually lift Venkatesh through the crowd, renting a tricycle to take him to Hosmat hospital. This is where claiming the ill-fated midfielder died shortly after taking over.
Hosmat deputy director Ajith Benedict Royan said there was no pulse or breathing. They went on to provide artificial shock and pacemaker but it was too late.
An autopsy report showed that Venkatesh’s death was due to a cardiac arrest. There was no external injury. This is a sudden death. This is common in football and high intensity sports. Dr. Benedict added that maybe he will have a chance if he gets the right oxygen and first aid at the right time.
Things didn’t stop there because shortly after Venkatesh was confirmed dead, his friends and family returned to the stadium, interrupting a game there and tossing seats at officials to demand a explanation.
So just a day after Muamba was told that he had passed the crisis, the football health of the world was warned by the tragic death of a player in the lowlands of the sport.