Negligence claimed in Cherepanov death

There were unconfirmed reports that Rangers' prospect Alexei Cherepanov did not receive the most prompt medical care after collapsing and ultimately dying Monday. The ambulance was said to not be on site and there were reports that there was no functioning battery for the defibrillator. Russian officials are saying the 19-year-old suffered from chronic ischemia, a medical condition in which not enough blood gets to the heart or other organs.

Russian officials are now questioning the immediate medical response to the Cherepanov crisis, as you can read here.

Cherepanov suffered from chronic ischemia, a medical condition in which not enough blood gets to the heart or other organs.

Comments

[Ted]

I don't buy the chronic ischemia "diagnosis".

First, this is usually associated with poor health later in life (arterial sclerosis and the like), though it is possible he could have had it as part of some sort of congenital abnormality.

If it were the case that he had chronic ischemia, he would most likely have known about this. Lack of blood flow to parts of the body tends to cause discomfort. For example, when your arm/leg is "asleep" it is caused by lack of blood flow to the extremity. Now, you don't have the same concentration of pain receptors innervating your internal organs, but even a mild ischemic attack along the lines proposed by the ESPN article would most likely have similar symptoms to that of a heart attack. Additionally, such a condition would most likely manifest itself gradually over time, not suddenly (and seemingly without warning) as in this case.

I'm not sure if this is a case of mistranslation, but it seems like "chronic" ischemia would be an unlikely cause for Cherepanov's death. It is much more likely that a congenital defect of the heart, such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, is the culprit.

[pghas]

Right on, Ted. Chronic ischemia is not a diagnosis, and unless the guy had lupus it's exceptionally unlikely there was something like this going on. Most likely had IHSS, which is the more modern term for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

[jagrmiester]

F'EN RUSSIANS! who the F drives the ambulance away huh?, who doesnt have more than one defibrillator?, shut down the KHL.

[Ted]

Jagrmeister:

Defibrillators are rather expensive, even in a rich country (here). They're probably proportionally more expensive over there.

That said, I worked on an ambulance (as an EMT) for 6 years and never had more than one defibrillator onboard. Over here the only places required by (federal) law to have a defibrillator are airports, though some localities require other locations (schools and other places) to have them as well. God only knows what the law is like over there.

As for the battery, these things need to be checked each and every day. Even when they are checked, they sometimes fail. I once had a (supposedly fully charged) battery go dead after only a few minutes of monitoring (no shocks even). Luckily we had a backup battery just in case...but things like that happen, not saying that they should be overlooked or accepted, but they happen.

I agree with what Zipay posted: A full investigation should be conducted in order to figure out what actually happened yesterday. It probably won't be undertaken, and we'll all be shoveled a bunch of (poorly translated) hogwash...but it should be done.