Negligence Caused Death of NY Rangers Rising Star
- 4 Comment
This is an UPDATE on my October 13, 2008 post, “Small Time Medical Care Hurts Big League Hockey.” Alexei Cherepanov, once considered a hot prospect for a future roster of our own New York Rangers, died that day when he collapsed while playing hockey in Russia, and could not receive timely medical care because no ambulance was stationed at the arena. There were additional questions at the time regarding whether defibrillators were available.
Rangers Prospect Alexei Cherepanov
Now, according to the AP news service, Mocscow authorities have accused an ice arena manager and a hockey club director of negligence in Cherepanov’s death, for having failed to have proper emergency medical services in place at the game. The young player apparently had chronic ischemia, a condition which causes obstruction of the blood supply, usually manifested as arterial narrowing.
While Moscow’s follow-up efforts are to be applauded, let’s hope that the renewed attention to this tragedy results in some real reform in Mother Russia, so that such a preventable incident does not happen again.
4 Comments on this post
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throckmorton said:
Right now the only thing that has occured are accusations. We do not know why he died. We can not say that it was medical negligence. Given his young age, he most likely had a congenital defect that caused arrythmias. These arrythmias are most often fatal and a defib most likely would not have made any difference. What would have made a difference would be if he had an implantable pacemaker and defib before it happened. Patients with chormic ishemia are unable to play hockey because the slightest exertion creates chest pain.
To say that medical negligence caused his death is assumptive and misleading. We know that from evidence based research that there are a certain number of young individuals who will suffer cardiac arrest. This is despite screening physical exams and ekgs.
December 4th, 2008 at 10:48 am -
Andrew Barovick said:
I agree that there is a lot we don’t know, but I’m not sure the Moscow prosecutors are calling it “medical” negligence. I would not call it that either, unless medical care were involved. I do see standard negligence here though, in that it is certainly foreseeable that a professional hockey player might become injured during a game or practice and need to be rushed to a hospital. So, to not have a means to get him there shows a huge lack of care. But your point is well taken. He may have died quickly, and access to the fastest ambulance or helicopter would have made no difference.
December 4th, 2008 at 12:17 pm -
throckmorton said:
This is a good review of sudden cardiac death in atheletes that explains the issue. http://www.cmelectures.org/lecture/athletes/. If it is forseeable that a profession hockey player might be injured and need to be rushed to the hospital, then we must think that at almost any work site, sporting event or gathering in general there may be someone who is injured and need to be rushed to the hospital. Do we as society pay to have ambulances stationed at each event, job site etc, or do we do as we do now with them available on call (911).
If it is negligence to not have them at these venues, then how do we pay for them and how do we make sure that we have the resources to take care of the emergencies that are coming in while our EMT crews are watching the game or job site, etc.
These are the societal issues that need to be determined. In a sense “we need to determine the stardard”. This should be done by the elected officials at the request of the citizens and not by the courts.
December 5th, 2008 at 6:46 am -
Andrew Barovick said:
I think that a positive initial step that has been taken is the placement of defibrillators in more and more public spaces. What I haven’t seen is any mass effort to train ordinary citizens in how to use them.
December 5th, 2008 at 8:07 am