Matters of the heart

The past four months have been the stage for several tragic and untimely losses in sports. And I'm not talking about George Best, we saw that one coming...

However for these guys death came quick, sudden and far too soon:
- Thomas Herrion, player for NFL's San Francisco 49ers, collapsed after a pre-season game in August; The cause of death was later determined to be Ischaemic heart disease.
- Jason Collier, basketball player for the Atlanta Hawks in the NBA, died in October; he suffered from a sudden heart rhythm disturbance caused by an abnormally enlarged heart.
- Eddie Guerrero, superstar in the WWE, died early November in his hotel room; his autopsy showed he had signs of heart disease.
- and earlier this week David Di Tomasso, footballer for FC Utrecht died in his sleep. It is widely assumed he suffered from cardiac arrest.

Also one NHL player came awfully close as well...

See the connection? All of them had some kind of heart condition that ultimately led to their passing. What's going on?

I'm not about to launch into a diatribe about the dark side of professional sports, or that we have to seize the day, because we don't know when it's over, or the failings and virtues of our health care. That requires a journalistic mindset, and I don't master that. But I do want to point out the following: in a short timespan a number of relatively high-profile athletes have suddenly died due to heart issues. There's no reason behind this, at least none that I can discern with my philosophical or religious ideas. With the help of modern media outlets, the news of this arrives quick, fast, and short. These guys get a headline, a tribute page, a tribute match, maybe even a commemorating wristband, and after that the surviving family members are left to deal with their memories, just like any other person who has lost loved ones in similar (or not) fashion.

Media lets us feel as if there's a sudden outbreak of heart-related deaths to seemingly super-healthy people. A call for closer cardiac monitoring with athletes is perfectly understandable. But it seems the end truly comes to all of us, whether you're in sports or not.