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N.Y. Rangers prospect Cherepanov dies

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Trey Beamon, Oct 13, 2008.

  1. Trey Beamon

    Trey Beamon Active Member

    Sad news. Judging solely from the comments, he could have been a special NHL player.

    New York Rangers prospect Alexei Cherepanov suffered an apparent heart attack during a game Monday night in Russia, collapsing on the bench, and died. He was 19.

    "We are extremely saddened by the tragic passing of Alexei," Rangers president and general manager Glen Sather said in a statement. "On behalf of the New York Rangers organization, I would like to extend our deepest sympathies to his family. Alexei was an intelligent, energetic young man, with tremendous talent and an extremely bright future."

    Cherepanov was the Rangers' first-round pick, 17th overall, in the 2007 draft.

    Avangard Omsk head coach Wayne Fleming said Cherepanov collapsed during the third period Monday night. Fleming said he did not see anything on the ice that could have contributed to the collapse and said medical personnel tried to get Cherepanov's heart beating again after it had stopped.


    http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=3641566
     
  2. Trey Beamon

    Trey Beamon Active Member

    Didn't see this on the NHL thread. Nuke if you wish, mods.
     
  3. DocTalk

    DocTalk Active Member

    Instead of heart attack (presumably a blocked coronary artery), most young athletes die from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, where there is asymmetric thickening of the heart muscle. Sudden death occurs because of a fatal rhythm disturbance, either ventricular fibrillation or ventricular tachycardia.

    Some countries have sports authorities who recommend cardiac echocardiograms to screen all athletes for this condition.
     
  4. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    damn... that's stunning
     
  5. ...from what I'm hearing, Jagr isn't in a good state right now. He's blaming himself for the young man's death, this may not end well. Tragic news for a young man from all accounts had a true love for the sport and was really looking forward to the NHL next season.
     
  6. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    Why would Jagr be blaming himself?
     
  7. Appgrad05

    Appgrad05 Active Member

    I remember when he fell from a propable No. 5 all the way to No. 17. Reason given then was lack of desire to be great. Wonder now if a bunch of teams saw something on the physical that scared them off.
     
  8. DocTalk

    DocTalk Active Member

    Physical examination is often unrevealing. Sometimes a murmur is heard or if a screening EKG is done, it is abnormal and that leads to further testing. This is an excerpt from an article that I wrote in September 2007:

    Every fall, the sports participation physical comes home with students and parent grumble about having to see a doctor to get it filled out just to let their aspiring athlete suit up. The family doctor does a cursory check, signs the paper and everybody is good to go. But is there a better way?

    The Italians and Americans differ in what is required to allow kids to play and the old world is thumbing its nose a little at the US approach this week at the annual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology. For the past 25 years, all athletes in Italy are required to have a heart screening assessment, which includes a family and personal history, physical examination and electrocardiogram. Sudden cardiac deaths have fallen from 4 per 100,000 to one tenth of that. Italian researchers and cardiologists believe that this standard should be accepted worldwide.

    Doctors in other countries aren’t so sure. At the American College of Cardiology meetings in 2006, Drs. Estes and Zipes discussed the controversies in screening athletes. They pointed out that the Italian studies dealt with relatively homogeneous populations and the doctors were well trained to screen adolescent athletes. The US had a more diverse population and that history and physical examination were adequate screening tools. Dr. Estes wrote: “Currently, EKGs are not advocated, and there is only selective use of stress test and echo(cardiograms) …The cost per diagnosis when it's been looked at for screening in the United States is prohibitive; it's hundreds of thousands of dollars per patient identified.”

    It seems that it always comes down to money and it may be too expensive to save a handful of lives each year. The risk is relatively minimal for high school students, but gradually increases as the athlete gets older, so that the risk for a senior citizen athlete may be 50 times greater than of a teenager. But statistics are only good for talking about lots of people. How does a parent decide what is right for their son or daughter? One in a million doesn’t mean much unless your kid happens to be the one.
     
  9. Smash Williams

    Smash Williams Well-Known Member

    Because Cherepanov initially collapsed after Jagr (his teammate) accidentally caught him in the chest with an elbow as they collided at the bench during a line change, according to some of the Russian websites. I don't know if this is actually a heart attack or one of those extremely scary "guy got hit in the chest at exactly the wrong millisecond and his heart stopped" things.

    It could be just a nasty internet rumor or not, but that does happen in hockey. Pronger's heart stopped briefly when he took a puck to the chest several years ago.


    This all appears to be not true.

    But according to the NYTimes blog, Jagr and Cherepanov were close: http://slapshot.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/rangers-prospect-chereponov-dies-during-game/?ref=sports That blog also references the fact that the ambulance had already left the area (it was near the end of the game), and the TSN article cited mentioned that the defibrillators at the arena may not have been working.

    Also, in a very very eerie video of the collapse/treatment, you can see Jagr hovering over Cherepanov while the team staff is working on him. Footage is here: http://www.adv.russian-hockey.ru/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5024&Itemid=78
     
  10. hockeybeat

    hockeybeat Guest

    I read a story--might have been on the Post's website--that said the doctors were working on the kid in the parking lot.

    I am interested in learning why the ambulance left before the game ended. Why wouldn't a EMT team stay until the game was over?
     
  11. Elliotte Friedman

    Elliotte Friedman Moderator Staff Member

    That footage of the kid being carried out is just awful.
     
  12. markvid

    markvid Guest

    Wish I hadn't seen it. Horrible.
     
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