Preventing sudden cardiac death was a critical forum topic at the 2012 FIFA Medical Conference in Budapest. Advocates argued that pitch-side automated external defibrillators (AED) be required at FIFA competitions all over the world. In the last 5 years, only 24 of 84 football players who suffered cardiac arrest survived. Tragically, there was no AED available at the stadium in 80% of cases.
So what happened next – what ACTION was taken?
We are delighted to share this good news story, this GREAT news story forwarded via email to us by Jiří Dvořák (FIFA Chief Medical Officer, Chairman F-MARC, BJSM co-author of: Consensus statement: The FIFA medical emergency bag and FIFA 11 steps to prevent sudden cardiac death: setting a global standard and promoting consistent football field emergency care)
Dear Dr. Jiri,
Wanted to inform you that in Kathmandu, Nepal during a semi final match of SAFF Championship 2013 between Nepal and Afghanistan on 8th September 2013 one player of the Afghanistan team, had a minor cardiac arrest. His life was saved due to timely intervention of competition doctor Dr. Binmra Bista. He used the FIFA-supplied AED to successfully revive the player and then quickly shifted to hospital within the span of 3-4 minutes. In hospital all tests were carried out and the tests reports were normal.
I spoke to Dr. Bista after the end of the match, he used the AED for the first time and he also thanked FIFA for supplying AEDs. It was a great experience for this doctor and he was very quick sense the real problem and thus he ended up using the AED.
I think tomorrow you might be able to read some news stories on this.
Thanks and best regards,
shaji
Shaji Prabhakaran, Regional Development Officer at FIFA
Remember that BJSM has published theme issues on Sports Cardiology including screening and prevention of sudden cardiac death (November 2012 and February 2013). The AMSSM and FIFA collaborated on an ECG interpretation module hosted by BMJ Learning
