Sport as life.

[electronpirate]

Today, I watched Finland vs Denmark in a group round for the EURO tourney. Finland was slated to get ROLLED against a really good team. In real time, I watched star player Christian Erikson collapse on the field in minute 43. He jogged forward, legs slowly giving out, and collapsed. Everyone screamed immediately for medical staff. The ensuing images are not pretty. The man was dead. Heart stopped. The frightened faces of all players, the tears in the stadium were testament.

A heroic medical staff worked on him. We watched in horror rib breaking CPR, and the electro paddles that spawned the tell tale spasms of a crew trying to restart a heart.

I’m in tears by this point. A wildly healthy 29 year old man in cardiac arrest was, to say the least, the last thing I had expected in a football tilt. 16 minutes of this was some of the most tense of experiences I have had in my life.

There was a happy ending. Erikson survived due to the amazing work of those medics who brought him back to the world.

For my part: I’m exhausted. We are so used to seeing these athletes as leviathans, as superheroes, as humans who have reached a level of fitness few of us have ever seen. To see one so visibly cut down quickly is….humbling, humanizing. Selfishly it points to my own (and those I love) state of being. How quickly it can happen, and how little time we might have on this orb.

Love all around you. Full stop.

R

 

[jefferski]

Great post. I didn't watch the game, but read about it and then watched some highlights (if you can call them that). Heroic work by the med people to revive him. We've gotten used to seeing people get injured, but not this.

 

[pharmd07]

Performing CPR is absolutely exhausting, and I can’t imagine doing it with so many people watching. I’m glad to hear it ended ok. Very often it does not.