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Christian Benitez - Another Victim of Football Heart Attacks
Other | Tuesday 30th July 2013 | Emma
Ecuadorian striker died at age 27
Yesterday (July 29) the Ecuadorian Football Federation and El Jaish club announced that Christian Benitez, 27 years old striker, died in a hospital in Qatar. Doctors said that the main cause of death was a heart attack.
Benitez played in 58 games with the Ecuador national team and scored 24 goals for them. Benitez, nicknamed 'Chucho', played for the Birmingham City in the 2009-10 season, making 36 appearances for the Blues. For the past three years he was playing in Mexico, wearing the Club America jersey. Last season he won with them the championship title and was the top scorer in the league. Chucho transferred this season to Qatari El Jaish Football Club for 10 million pounds.
Only 3 weeks after signing the contract with El Jaish he made his debut for the club on Sunday against Qatar SC. Unfortunately, it turned out to be his last game ever.
After the Sunday game, the player was complaining about severe stomach pains and went to hospital. After a few hours he suffered a cardiorespiratory arrest and died. However, the player’s father-in-law mentioned that cause of death could be complications from appendicitis, which lead to peritonitis and consequently cardiac arrest.
Either way, his death in age 27 caused by heart attack brings us to problem of “athlete’s heart”.
Benitez joined the group of people who died while being professional athletes. We can point a lot of other football players who died, even during the game: Marc-Vivien Foé (28), Miklós Fehér (24), Antonio Puerta (22), and much more.
Among the athletes who died suddenly at sports arenas, most of the men are aged 16-30 years. Most common cause of sudden death in young, apparently healthy people is hidden heart failure and heart attacks. This is what in medicine even has a special term - “athlete's heart”. According to the sports doctors, players train too much, play games too often and have too little time to rest. Such exertions the body is not able to tolerate without regeneration.
Benitez had two kids and wife, who will come back to Ecuador with the body for the funeral ceremonies. The player will be missed by teammates, friends and family.
Emma Wojcik
