This weekend was our Pacific Masters Championships. It was a close battle between WCM and USF and I don't know who won at this very moment. I don't care.
You see, I left right before the 1000 today (the last event) right after the last relays. I watched some great swims today. Amazing swims. My friend Brendon swam a 2:03 200 fly and really hit his taper (as he's not going to Nationals)- we were teasing about how he does really well the week after a tapered meet. He seemed to finally figure it out this time.
My friend Stephen called me tonight and told me that Brendon also had a great 1000, was warming down, had a heart attack and died. He was 35. I was stunned. I've been crying since then trying to make sense of it all. It doesn't make sense.
I called some other friends and no one else can believe it either. Suddenly, the meet doesn't matter, swimming doesn't matter, what matters is that we lost a really great guy today. He was always so happy, funny, and loved to tell jokes. He was really good natured and fun to be around. I will miss him terribly.
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Former Member
The autopsy report suggests that the observed enlarged heart is symptomatic of a diseased heart. But as we know, an enlarged heart is also typical of athletes; in this case an enlarged heart means nothing, and gets us no closer to what actually happened to Brendon.
Of course, the coronor gets lots of dead people with truly diseased enlarged hearts, so that is what is observed without looking at the situation any more closely.
It should be possible to distinguish a healthy large heart from an unhealthy large heart, both in the cadaver and in a 'healthy' individual, and it is particularly important to tell the difference in older populations, like USMS swimmers.
If the USMS Memorial Fund, recommended by Bill, supports research on subjects like this, it is well worth the money and a good memorial for Brendon Wen.
The autopsy report suggests that the observed enlarged heart is symptomatic of a diseased heart. But as we know, an enlarged heart is also typical of athletes; in this case an enlarged heart means nothing, and gets us no closer to what actually happened to Brendon.
Of course, the coronor gets lots of dead people with truly diseased enlarged hearts, so that is what is observed without looking at the situation any more closely.
It should be possible to distinguish a healthy large heart from an unhealthy large heart, both in the cadaver and in a 'healthy' individual, and it is particularly important to tell the difference in older populations, like USMS swimmers.
If the USMS Memorial Fund, recommended by Bill, supports research on subjects like this, it is well worth the money and a good memorial for Brendon Wen.
