Not even 40 minutes had passed in the duel between Barcelona and Alabès that an image on the pitch drew attention. With his hand on his neck and no elbow, he could see Kun Agüero calling for help from the medical services. The Argentine had to be replaced due, according to Barça at the end of the match, to cardiac arrhythmias that will leave him, in principle, for about three months after undergoing a cardiac evaluation.
The Agüero episode is not an isolated case in recent years in the world of football. The case of Ferran Duran del Maià has been the most recent but there have been many others. In Girona 15 years ago, on November 12, a similar episode was seen. Under Joan Carrillo, the team beat Palamós 0-1 with a goal from Dani Martí. Probably many of the players who stepped on the turf of the New Stadium do not remember much about the game. On the other hand, he will always remember Jose Martínez. The then Girona defender, like Agüero, felt more tired than usual for a moment in the game. “During one play I didn’t feel good. As if in low form. I was trying to recover and I felt tired again. Halfway through I told the physio that was not normal but I kept playing. In the second half I felt like throwing up and all, “explains the current president of FC Vilablareix, who, now, with the prospect of time and with laughter, says that” when I asked for change it was because I couldn’t stand it anymore. He was a bull playing.
Aware that this episode crossed the ephemeral line between the ordinary and the extraordinary, and once the match was over, he went to the Palamós Hospital to find out what was happening to him. “There they gave me an electro and told me I had an altered heart rate. They prescribed me some medicine and recommended absolute rest the next day. Seeing that the symptoms continued he went to the emergency room of the Trueta Hospital with his mother. “There they immediately opened a way for me to inject myself with medicine and let me know that I had to remain under observation for 24 hours. I had a bad time because I had no TV or coverage. I told my mother to tell the club and the press that I would be absent and under observation but that I was fine, ”he recalls.
After spending the night and hoping that everything would end quickly they informed him that the arrhythmia was continuing. “That’s when I’m transported to a room with internship students and they start putting patches on the upper trunk of my body. I fell asleep to get an electro-shock and thus make my heart beat to the usual beat “, explains Jose, who from there apparently returned to normal. “I got up and went home. Amazing, ”he explains.
From there, Jose returned to the club determined to return to work. “I thought it would be okay and no. Things weren’t moving forward, they weren’t fixing … I was so demotivated that even the idea of leaving football floated on my head. The next step was to go to the Hospital de Sant Pau in Barcelona: “I arrived there with fear. Luckily, the doctor commented to me that he had supraventricular tachycardia. Of those there was the weakest. He also advised me to stop drinking energy drinks like Red Bull. In short, it was a matter of stress, ”he recalls.
Jose’s return to the team was calm. “I wanted to play again after Christmas to really clean up. I remember the physical trainer, Toni Masferrer, giving me a watch and a ribbon to put on my chest. I trained with that and all the time you see me watching my wrist “, he describes. His idea waited a while to reappear, but Jose did it sooner. “The right side was injured and I had to play with the ribbon on my chest but without the watch on. Instead of me, it was carried by Toni who was watching the rhythm of my beats and pulsations during the match ».
Luckily, this episode was not repeated and ended well. “And that could have even been saved from the start” if they had given me an electro shock. ” At least that’s what the doctor at St. Paul’s Hospital told him. The story, then, is well known. Promotion to Second B, first, to Second A, then and 199 matches in professional football with Girona (258 in total). “Then, at some point when I felt tired and short of breath, I wondered if it was happening again; but it never happened to me again », remembers Jose, who is now 38 years old and enjoys, away from the first football plan, with Vilablareix.
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