Twenty years ago, on June 26, 2003, footballer Marc-Vivien Foé died on the pitch, struck down by a heart attack. After the death of the Cameroonian and other tragedies, radical changes have been made in terms of prevention and management of heart attacks in football.
Some images are indelible. Those seen in Lyon, June 26, 2003, are unfortunately part of it. In this Gerland stadium that he knew so well, Marc-Vivien Foé left suddenly. During the semi-final of the Confederations Cup against Colombia, the Cameroonian colossus collapsed and never got up. He was only 28 years old.
This vision of the inanimate footballer, eyes rolled back in the center of the field, traumatized the football planet and beyond. That day, the Indomitable Lion succumbed to a heart attack. Later, the autopsy will reveal that he suffered from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or more simply an increase in the size of the heart.
The sudden death syndrome of the sportsman due to a cardiac arrest during a physical effort was already known, and Marc-Vivien Foé was not the first high-level footballer to be victim of it. But this drama on film, followed by another much publicized soon after – the Hungarian Miklos Fehér, who died at the age of 24 during a match of Benfica against Guimaraes in Portugal, on January 24, 2004 – highlighted this risk and the need to accentuate the work of prevention around heart disorders.
« There was a realization after the death of Foé »
The football authorities began to take action shortly after the deaths of Foé and Fehér. As of Euro 2004, the UEFA regulations reinforced the medical examinations of players and established new rules, in particular the compulsory presence of an ambulance equipped with a defibrillator at each match. Because the death of Foé had highlighted shortcomings in this area.
The Cameroonian was left alone for a few moments, lying on the ground, before the players in the meeting realized the gravity of the situation. The emergency response was chaotic: no cardiac massage was performed on the pitch and it took almost three minutes for the player to be clumsily evacuated on a stretcher. Efforts to resuscitate him later behind the scenes at the stadium were unsuccessful.
A statue representing Marc-Vivien Foé at the site of his abandoned football academy in Yaoundé, February 2, 2022. AP – Sunday Alamba
Awareness of these risks is also, since the tragedy, very different. As early as 2004, in France, the Professional Football League (LFP) required professional clubs to provide biological and cardiological monitoring of players. The regulations thus stipulate that professional footballers must undergo, among other things, two biological examinations per year, an electrocardiogram at rest and a cardiac ultrasound.
In addition, from 2006, the LFP has required each club to have a defibrillator. ” There is a move upmarket in care, care and relief. And that’s good “Approves former international referee Bruno Derrien to RFI.
Doctor at CS Sedan-Ardennes from 2003 to 2013, Manuel Afonso explains for his part that ” there was an awareness after the death of Marc-Vivien Foé, in particular at the level of the tests carried out with the players ». « These were much more advanced afterwards, with longitudinal monitoring, cardio tests before each start of the season… We were much more attentive “, he confirms.
Marco Randriana and Christian Eriksen, two memorable miracles
The effects of this preventive reinforcement were quickly observed. On January 18, 2008, during a Ligue 2 match between Sedan and Niort, a player from Chamois Niort, Marco Randriana, suffered a cardiac arrest. The emergency services, namely Manuel Afonso and the rest of the medical team mobilized for this match, did not hesitate for a moment. ” I hurried up “recalls the one who officiates today in the Senegal team.
The intervention was life-saving. With the help of the defibrillator which the Sedan club had been equipped with for years already, Marco Randriana’s heart restarted and the player was brought back to life. In such cases, the speed of treatment is crucial. For Bruno Derrien, who held the whistle from 1991 to 2007, the authorization of the refereeing body to enter the field – as is usually the case – is of course dispensable: “ The medical staff does not have to wait. He enters immediately, it is normal. The main thing is not the game but the health of the player. »
« During a cardiac arrest, the blood is no longer propelled to the organs, in particular the brain. The shorter the stop, the less damage there will be. This is why it is imperative to react quickly and appropriately. “, deciphers Manuel Afonso, in favor of learning lifesaving gestures from school. ” The faster we intervene, the more the person will have a high chance of survival. “, he continues.
Even more recent illustration with what happened to Christian Eriksen on June 12, 2021, during a Euro match between Denmark and Finland. The attacking midfielder collapsed, victim of a cardiac arrest. Referee Anthony Taylor and the players alerted the emergency services only four seconds after his fall. Simon Kjaer, the Danish captain, immediately put his teammate in a lateral safety position and started the cardiopulmonary resuscitation procedure. And less than 25 seconds after falling inanimate, Eriksen was taken care of by the medical team, which made his heart start again a few moments of anguish later.
« The rescuers on the ground were very professional, very operational “, remarks Manuel Afonso, who insists as much on medical gestures as on “ how to keep Eriksen out of sight “. The Denmark players took care to surround their teammate on the ground during the intervention and before the doctors deployed sheets to work calmly.
« Hazards that cannot be prevented »
However, the protocols in force over the past 20 years are not guaranteed to be infallible. ” This type of event remains totally unpredictable. We may have equipment, we never know how it will turn out “recalls Manuel Afonso. On August 25, 2007, the Spaniard Antonio Puerta, during a match between his club, Sevilla, and Getafe, was resuscitated on the lawn after a cardiac arrest. But his heart gave out again several times after his evacuation from the field, and the player died three days later in hospital.
The medical follow-up of the players does not rule out all the risks either. If the tests have detected potentially dangerous anomalies – Lilian Thuram during his aborted transfer to PSG in 2008 for example – the unexpected requires constant vigilance. ” Despite all the screening and prevention efforts, there are hazards that cannot be prevented. See Christian Eriksen, who is not Everyman “, notes Manuel Afonso again. The Dane was playing at the time with Inter Milan and now plays for Manchester United, the tolerant English championship footballers with an implantable defibrillator.
According to the French Federation of Cardiology, each year, more than 500 athletes die of cardiac arrest in full physical effort.
Responding to a Person Going into Cardiac Arrest
In the presence of a person – athletic or not – victim of cardiac arrest, she recommends three successive reflexes to have.
1) Alert the emergency services
2) Practice cardiac massage
3) Make use of an automated external defibrillator (AED) if one is nearby
The Staying Alive application, created in 2011, can be very useful to you. It lists the AEDs close to your geographical position. It also gives advice on lifesaving gestures, and if you are trained in these gestures, you can be a “Good Samaritan”: so if someone asks for help in the Staying Alive app and you are proximity, you can join her and help save a life.
