Grant Wahl, an American soccer writer who was covering the World Cup in Qatar when he died last week, had a burst aortic aneurysm, according to Dr. Celine Gounder, his wife.
According to Gounder on “CBS Mornings,” “it’s just one of those things that had probably been simmering for years, and for whatever reason it happened at this moment in time.”
Gounder provided a more detailed statement, claiming that an autopsy by the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office revealed he passed away as a result of “the rupture of a slowly developing, undiagnosed ascending aortic aneurysm with hemopericardium.”
“The chest tightness he felt just before he passed away could have been the first sign.” There was nothing “nefarious” about his death, she said, adding that no amount of CPR or shocks could have saved him.
Longtime Sports Illustrated college basketball and soccer reporter Wahl, who also published his own newsletter, passed away after collapsing while covering Friday’s Argentina-Netherlands game. He was 49.
According to his website, he had covered soccer for more than 20 years, including 11 World Cups (six for men and five for women), and had written many books about the game.
Ned Price, a spokesman for the US State Department, reported that his body was brought back to the US on Monday for the autopsy. An example is an upward aortic aneurysm. A comparison of a damaged and healthy heart
An aortic aneurysm: what is it?
An aortic aneurysm is a balloon-like bulging in the aorta, the major artery that delivers blood from the heart to the chest, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. An aneurysm ruptures when it totally bursts, resulting in internal bleeding.
Aortic aneurysms or dissections, according to the CDC, resulted in roughly 10,000 fatalities in 2019. Men made up around 59% of those fatalities.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the chief medical correspondent for CNN, says that aortic aneurysms are usually rare and hard to diagnose.
He said that it was difficult to test for this kind of issue. “It’s possible that something has been there for some time without showing many symptoms.”
Wahl said he was feeling ill in the days before his death.
“The pressure, stiffness, and tightness in my chest had grown really awful. Days before his passing, he admitted to feeling “very hairy, terrible” to co-host Chris Wittyngham on an episode of the podcast Futbol with Grant Wahl.
He continued by saying that he went to the World Cup media center clinic for treatment because he thought he had bronchitis.
In a newsletter that was released on December 5, he went on to further detail the occurrence, claiming that his body “broke down” as a result of lack of sleep, high stress levels, and a demanding job.
He claimed that after suffering with a cold for ten days, it “developed into something more serious” and that he felt better after taking medication and getting some rest.
Gounder explains how she discovered Grant Wahl passing.
In an interview with CBS, Gounder said that memorials to her late husband are touching and comforting. Feeling the outpouring was “like hearing a warm embrace when you truly need it,” she added, since “he was so loved by so many people.”
When she started receiving texts from a friend last week who said that Wahl had fallen and that medical staff had tried CPR for 20 minutes, she claimed she first realized something was wrong. She continued to ask whether he had a pulse while she sought to locate someone at the hospital in Qatar to find out more.
She claimed that nobody would respond to the query. I felt afraid.
Grant Wahl on October 10, 2014. In an international friendly at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Connecticut, the men’s national teams of the United States and Ecuador drew 1-1.
After passing out during the World Cup in Qatar, American journalist Grant Wahl passed away. She added that she visited her late husband’s body because “I really, truly needed to see it.”
Sincerely, this has been so bizarre. “Even after seeing the corpse, it’s still difficult to believe this is happening, but I needed it,” she added.
She admitted that even though she wasn’t a huge sports enthusiast, she believed that for Wahl, “Soccer was more than just a sport; it was this thing that united people all over the world.”
“There is a lot to learn about soccer’s politics and culture.” She said he used it as a method to truly understand individuals and their perspectives. “I want him to be remembered as this wonderful, caring person who was genuinely committed to social justice,” she said.
She thought back to previous comments her husband had made about LGBT rights and how he had supported the women’s game. Grant did that, she clarified.
