Is this an alarm that we should swim more to strengthen our hearts? Though similar tragedies happened to swimmers in the past, too, I believe. Seems all are in their late 50's?
News from
www.newsday.com/.../ny-nyrun0312133574nov03,0,6679842.story
Marathon runner dies after collapsing at finish line
BY DANIEL EDWARD ROSEN9:32 PM EST, November 2, 2008
A 58-year-old runner who had just finished the New York Marathon Sunday collapsed at the finish line after going into cardiac arrest and later died at a local hospital, police said.
Carlos Jose Gomes, of Sao Paolo, Brazil, was pronounced dead at Lenox Hill Hospital at about 5:20 p.m., police said. He had fallen ill after he crossed the finish line of the 26.2 mile race near the intersection of 81st Street and Central Park West.
Two other people suffered cardiac arrest Sunday while running in the race, police said.
A 59-year-old man collapsed in the middle of the Queensboro Bridge, police said. A fellow runner stopped and administered CPR until two emergency medical technicians arrived.
The runner was taken to New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, where he was listed as critical but stable, according to one of the EMTs.
Jean-Louis Maubaret, 59, a French national, was running alongside his wife across the Queensboro Bridge between the 15th and 16th mile of the race when he collapsed, unconscious and not breathing, according to EMT Salvatore Sangeniti.
Sangeniti, 47, of the New York Fire Department EMS Division 4, was crossing the bridge from the Manhattan side when he and his partner, Amanda Wong, received a radio call about the runner. They reached the middle of the bridge to find another runner performing CPR.
Sangeniti, of Centereach, said he placed a defibrillator on Maubaret's chest. After one shock, he said, the runner regained consciousness and resumed breathing.
The runner who performed CPR returned to the race once he saw that Maubaret had regained consciousness, Sangeniti said.
Another marathoner suffered cardiac arrest on East 107th Street yesterday afternoon. The man, whose name was not immediately known, had collapsed and was not breathing, according to an FDNY spokesman. EMTs performed CPR as he was rushed by ambulance to Mount Sinai Medical Center.
Researchers have known for a few years now that a marker for heart stress usually seen in heart attacks rises in the blood of marathon runners. Whether or not this is dangerous remains somewhat debated, but it does suggest that marathons are stressful to even well-trained hearts.
Representative study conclusion:
CONCLUSION: Troponin increases were relatively common among marathon finishers and can reach levels typically diagnostic for acute myocardial infarction. Less marathon experience and younger age appeared to be associated with troponin increases, whereas race duration and the presence of traditional cardiovascular risk factors were not. Further work is needed to determine the clinical significance of these findings.
Gull, just for the record, are you saying that the majority of cardiac arrest deaths in endurance exercise events are triggered by clots? Or is this just one of multiple possibilities, including other problems (perhaps unknown to the runner) such as valve damage, left ventricle hypertrophy from high blood pressure, hyponatremia, and/or foci for arrhythmia due to occult scar tissue from earlier small m.i.'s., etc. ?
Researchers have known for a few years now that a marker for heart stress usually seen in heart attacks rises in the blood of marathon runners. Whether or not this is dangerous remains somewhat debated, but it does suggest that marathons are stressful to even well-trained hearts.
Representative study conclusion:
CONCLUSION: Troponin increases were relatively common among marathon finishers and can reach levels typically diagnostic for acute myocardial infarction. Less marathon experience and younger age appeared to be associated with troponin increases, whereas race duration and the presence of traditional cardiovascular risk factors were not. Further work is needed to determine the clinical significance of these findings.
Gull, just for the record, are you saying that the majority of cardiac arrest deaths in endurance exercise events are triggered by clots? Or is this just one of multiple possibilities, including other problems (perhaps unknown to the runner) such as valve damage, left ventricle hypertrophy from high blood pressure, hyponatremia, and/or foci for arrhythmia due to occult scar tissue from earlier small m.i.'s., etc. ?