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Good blog. RIP.

When you hear this, you don't know what to think. After Luc Bourdon, I was shocked beyond belief, because I had seen him play live on more than a few occasions and he obviously had a great future.

19! Tragedy.

Greta blog RW19. What a shame...the whole tragic situation.

I'll add my condolences as well to this. NO defib devices working?? THERE'S the bigger obscenity...

I feel for this kids family. To go at such a young age and for such stupid reasons why. There has to be some kind of law against this.

Excellent point about the KHL League - Jagr, etc. The broken defibrilator like you say is probably representative of a lot more 'broken' things in the system.
There is a lot more to life-style decisions that just money.

Very sad story.

UPDATE: Russian lawmakers have said that there will be an investigation of negligence on the part of the late-arriving paramedics, with the possibility of criminal charges.

QUOTE(#8):

Originally posted 12:51 PM ET  10.14 by Redwing19: retired

UPDATE: Russian lawmakers have said that there will be an investigation of negligence on the part of the late-arriving paramedics, with the possibility of criminal charges.

first off good blog.

second, that would be very sad if what these charges say are true. The death is one awful thing, but if it was due to negligence, than thats a whole new level of sadness.

"Cherepanov died of a sudden disturbance of the heart's rhythm, or commotio cordis. According to Wikipedia, a commotio cordis occurs as a result of a blunt, non-penetrating object to the precordial region that can cause an arrythmia. It is very deadly, but is treatable with quick action from a medical team and the use of a defibrillator and other cardioactive drugs".

Cherepanov died from arrhythmia but his arrhythmia was brought on not by blunt force trauma but rather by a congenital heart disease known as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy ( HCM ). In this condition, which is often undiagnosed in athletes in this country as well as Russia, either all of the heart's walls or, more commonly, just one wall, thickens and eventually causes an arrhythmia known as ventricular fibrillation. And while immediate defibrillation and the administration of emergency cardiac meds may have saved this young man's life, that is not a given. I will state unequivocally that the liklihood of Cherepanov's survival would have been greatly increased but not guaranteed.

At some point in his life Cherepanov was probably given an EKG, which may or may not have indicated the presence of the HCM. The only test that would have undeniably shown it would be a cardiac sonogram and as he had this disease undiagnosed one can assume he never had that performed. Unfortunately this is the case in this country as well. I went to U MD back in the late 70's where two basketball players, one already graduated ( Owen Brown ) and one still playing (Steve Sheppard ), collapsed during playground games and died as a result of undiagnosed and untreated HCM. ( And hearing UMD and basketball players collapsing and dying may make some think of Len Bias but he died from an arrhythmia brought on by acute cocaine toxicity, a totally different scenario).

I'm pretty much repeating what I had written under that Cherepanov thread a while back but I will state that while one can hope that the Russian league and all their arenas will provide defibrillators and ambulances from here on out, even their presence cannot guarantee that an athlete experiencing sudden cardiac death can be brought back to life. And that being said, when it comes to the issue of negligence, the league and arena may and should be found negligent of failing to provide emergency equipment but from a legal standpoint they will not be found guilty as having cost this young man his life. I'm in no way defending anyone's actions here, emergency cardiac support should certainly have been present at this and indeed every sporting event around the globe. I'm simply stating that even this equipment doesn't guarantee a saved life.

QUOTE(#10):

Originally posted 01:19 AM ET  10.28 by Seabird 56

Cherepanov died from arrhythmia but his arrhythmia was brought on not by blunt force trauma but rather by a congenital heart disease known as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy ( HCM ). In this condition, which is often undiagnosed in athletes in this country as well as Russia, either all of the heart's walls or, more commonly, just one wall, thickens and eventually causes an arrhythmia known as ventricular fibrillation. And while immediate defibrillation and the administration of emergency cardiac meds may have saved this young man's life, that is not a given. I will state unequivocally that the liklihood of Cherepanov's survival would have been greatly increased but not guaranteed.At some point in his life Cherepanov was probably given an EKG, which may or may not have indicated the presence of the HCM. The only test that would have undeniably shown it would be a cardiac sonogram and as he had this disease undiagnosed one can assume he never had that performed. Unfortunately this is the case in this country as well. I went to U MD back in the late 70's where two basketball players, one already graduated ( Owen Brown ) and one still playing (Steve Sheppard ), collapsed during playground games and died as a result of undiagnosed and untreated HCM. ( And hearing UMD and basketball players collapsing and dying may make some think of Len Bias but he died from an arrhythmia brought on by acute cocaine toxicity, a totally different scenario). I'm pretty much repeating what I had written under that Cherepanov thread a while back but I will state that while one can hope that the Russian league and all their arenas will provide defibrillators and ambulances from here on out, even their presence cannot guarantee that an athlete experiencing sudden cardiac death can be brought back to life. And that being said, when it comes to the issue of negligence, the league and arena may and should be found negligent of failing to provide emergency equipment but from a legal standpoint they will not be found guilty as having cost this young man his life. I'm in no way defending anyone's actions here, emergency cardiac support should certainly have been present at this and indeed every sporting event around the globe. I'm simply stating that even this equipment doesn't guarantee a saved life.

I appreciate your comments. When I wrote this blog, it was very soon after the tragedy and very little information was available. Therefore, I was left to come to a conclusion from the information I found. I forget what news source it was, but somebody reported that Cherepanov suffered a commotio cordia. Now, it seems as though the cause of his death was different.

When I saw a video of the incident, to my admittedly unprofessional mind it seemed as though the cardiac arrest was uncontrollable. Not mild by any stretch, but not immediately fatal. It reminded me, as I said, of the Jiri Fischer incident and I quickly became versed on how his life was saved and what pieces of the puzzle were missing in Russia. The equipment may not have guaranteed his survival, but even improving his chances from none to slim is something that needs to be done in my book.

Once again, thank you for commenting.

Thanks, Redwing, I tend to go off on this kind of stuff as I do echocardiograms for a living at NIH where we had a very large pt. population with HCM ( until the cardiologist specializing in it left ). And you're absolutely right there in your comment about being able to do everything possible to improve a victim's chances. Personally I think this will shake the Russian league up. It was a huge black eye for them and the country.

Just as an aside, one of my co-workers is Russian by way of Israel and he was telling me what he heard through his homeland grapevine. The town where the game was played had only one ambulance and that was called away for an emergency about 15 minutes to a half hour before Cherepanov collapsed. My friend also made the comment that if there were any doctors in attendance they were probably drunk. He was very disgusted. I head about the Fischer incident but never read or saw anything on my own. Was that HCM too? According to some reports, it occurs in about .2 % of the population which comes out to be about 1 in 500, although I've heard that number is a little exaggerated. But whatever it is, it's not all that uncommon and in my opinion, anyone who is playing - or has a son or daughter playing - serious competitive sports should take the time to have a screening echo done. And if anyone on here falls into that category and decides they want to do that, please FN mail me and I'll tell you how to get around the insurance......