AN AUTOPSY will be carried out today on the body of Livorno midfielder Piermario Morosini, the 25-year-old Italian footballer who collapsed and died during a Division Two league game between Pescara and Livorno on Saturday.
Despite polemics about the delayed arrival on the pitch of an ambulance, it would appear that the unfortunate Morosini died almost instantaneously from either a massive heart attack or an equally devastating brain haemorrhage.
Saturday’s game was just half-an-hour old when Morosini, standing by himself, began to stagger. TV images show the player attempting to stay on his feet before he collapsed face down on the pitch. Both the Livorno team doctor and team physiotherapist quickly realised the seriousness of the situation, running onto the pitch even before the match referee had noticed the collapsed player.
In a turn of events, uncannily similar to the incident last month which saw Bolton midfielder Fabrice Muamba survive a cardiac arrest during a Tottenham v Bolton Premier League game, a heart specialist, Dr Leonardo Paloscia of Pescara General Hospital, happened to be in the grandstand on Saturday.
Dr Paloscia quickly made his way onto the pitch to oversee the treatment of Morosini. Speaking to reporters afterwards, he explained: “I ran down the steps and even if there were inevitable minor hold-ups with the stewards who didn’t know who I was, I think I got to him very quickly, certainly in time to save him. While I was attempting cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), we also “tubbed” him and then on the way to the hospital we tried everything, including the use of a pacemaker. . . His heart, however, did not respond, even once. Basically, he died on the pitch.”
Both Dr Paloscia and the Livorno team doctor, Ernesto Sabatini, suggested that a three-minute delay to the arrival of an ambulance was probably irrelevant to Morosini’s fate. The doctors had called for the ambulance, containing the cardiac defibrillator and already at the ground, to be brought onto the pitch immediately but it lost three minutes because the emergency entrance had been blocked by a parked Traffic Police car.
Dr Sabatini added: “In the end, we had the defibrillator on the pitch but you can only use it after you have done a cardiac massage. The problem was that we didn’t have even the slightest heartbeat on which to work. It might sound paradoxical but cases of sudden death are much higher amongst athletes than amongst those who lead a sedentary life . . . An athlete is like a high powered motor car which is always going flat out and in that sense his engine is more likely to break down. ”
The Italian Football Federation responded to the death by immediately suspending all fixtures, at every level, for the weekend. The Serie A games which had been scheduled for Saturday and yesterday will now be played on Wednesday April 25th.
In Spain, both Real Madrid and Barcelona observed a minute’s silence in memory of Morosini before their Saturday ties.
