Turea explained that a friend of his made it after Ekeng's death, looking to combine the two dead Dinamo men in one device. "It's clearly been done by someone who doesn't have a clue what they're doing.". Their businesses flourish during matches as spectators gather around, gossiping and exchanging views on the game. The rivalry between the two Bucharest sides, rooted in the communist period when Steaua was founded to provide sporting opportunities for the army and Dinamo for the huge police arm of a surveillance state, is ferocious. All rights reserved.Tap here to turn on desktop notifications to get the news sent straight to you.Pro Soccer Player Patrick Ekeng Dies After Collapsing During Match.He reportedly was untreated at the stadium.Sign up for membership to become a founding member and help shape HuffPost's next chapter.Today is National Voter Registration Day!We made it easy for you to exercise your right to vote!Professional soccer player Patrick Ekeng died after collapsing during a home match in Bucharest on Friday, reportedly from a heart attack.Ekeng was given CPR during a two-minute ambulance ride to the hospital, but the vehicle didn’t have equipment that might have helped him.Club director Ionel Danciulescu said Ekeng didn't seem to have any health problems before the game.Ekeng joined Dinamo in 2015. In French, the banner reads: "A lion does not die, he sleeps. "The bad thing was after we start to train we're training like you know, block people; we're just like machines, train here and go. Ekeng's wife was on the phone trying to find out extra information. Eight seconds after Ekeng collapsed, his teammate Sergiu Hanca reached the midfielder, pushing past Dinamo winger Dorin Rotariu. The autopsy report claimed Ekeng's heart showed three major anomalies: hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the heart muscle is abnormally thickened; left ventricular non-compaction, a condition in which the heart muscle is malformed with crevices in the inner lining of the heart; and arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the heart muscle is replaced by fat and scar tissue.Each of these conditions, found individually, is rare, with probabilities of occurrence of 1 in 500, 1 in 2,000 and 1 in 1,000 to 5,000, respectively.Dr Sanjay Sharma says that for a patient to have all three of these conditions at one time is almost inconceivable. The huge cortege included upwards of 100 cars. An ECG test (a device that records the electrical activity of the heart through electrodes placed on the skin) found Ekeng "cardiologically normal," though Marinescu noticed "certain peculiarities" and recommended Ekeng subsequently undergo an echocardiogram—another test of the action of the heart using ultrasound waves—at a centre of the club's choosing.Two days later, on January 14, Medas, a private clinic in Bucharest, performed the echocardiography; it was normal. "It's a tragedy that will never be erased from our souls," Danciulescu said.At the time of his death, Nathalie Ekeng was pregnant with Patrick's child. "Then we see how he's on his bed, at the hospital in the room," Feussi recalls. Romanian doctors declared him dead.That was not how it should have ended for Ekeng. Après plusieurs années au Canon Yaoundé, il rejoint l'Europe et le club du Mans en France. ".The pitch at Anguissa where Ekeng played.Ekeng lies on the pitch after he collapsed during the football match between Dinamo Bucharest and Viitorul Constanta in Bucharest May 6, 2016.Ekeng (centre) in action for Spanish club Cordoba in August 2014.Ekeng is lifted from the pitch to a stretcher.The Puls Ambulance HQ in Bucharest, Romania.Dinamo fans gathered for a vigil on May 7, 2016, in memory of Ekeng.Candles and flowers laid in tribute to Ekeng on May 7, 2016, at Dinamo's stadium.The entrance to the emergency room where Ekeng was taken in Bucharest.An ambulance parked at Dinamo's stadium during a game in October 2016.Dinamo fans support their team during a home match in October 2016.Raed Arafat, state secretary at Romania's ministry of health and the man who co-ordinates all emergency services in the country.Ekeng was laid to rest on May 15, 2016, in Cameroon.Mourners at Ekeng's funeral in Cameroon on May 15, 2016.European Resuscitation Council Guidelines. "I saw him; I was traumatised. Marcel Essombe announced he was done with Dinamo; he fell into a deep depression and retreated to his room for many days. Ekeng's wife, Nathalie, disputes the family's rights to the money and has retained her own counsel. Many wanted to impersonate him; Ekeng came closer than many.According to Maxime Nana, a Cameroonian football agent, Ekeng's break into European football with Le Mans came after his performance in the youth version of the African Cup of Nations in Rwanda in early 2009 impressed the French side. Stephen Carpenter disregarded the early rumours and initial tweets but heard confirmation as he waited for the bus to his hotel. ",Before he died, Ekeng was building a house back in his home neighbourhood in Yaounde; it is a large structure with pillars on the frontage. But Ekeng would not be the first African player to end up there. Many fans lingered in the stands after the match, waiting for an official announcement that never came.Mihnea Ionescu overheard a journalist. Dinamo had an arrangement with Puls, a private ambulance service based in Bucharest.Mihnea Ionescu, a Dinamo fan watching the game from a stand overlooking the centre of the pitch, said he observed Elena-Mihaela Duta, the 31-year-old doctor from the ambulance crew, lean against a fence eating what appeared to be popcorn. ©2020 Verizon Media. Puls refused to comment on the case.According to prosecutor Marian Trusca, Elena-Mihaela Duta is "officially a manslaughter suspect." "I figured it's something very serious and then the game didn't even matter," he tells Bleacher Report. His January 2016 screening, however, says more about the fundamental limitations of that process than local inadequacies in Bucharest.A similar story played out in the UK with former Premier League player Fabrice Muamba; he sailed through obligatory screenings before his cardiac arrest in 2012 (Muamba survived but retired from football). "I felt powerless and I had a deja vu," he says.From Ionescu's position, the ambulance seemed to move excruciatingly slowly; Ionescu estimated no more than 30 kilometres per hour. "That's why I thought it wasn't that serious," he explains.We may never know the exact nature of the problem with Ekeng's heart, as the same alleged medical incompetence that withered his chances of survival on the evening of May 6, 2016, extended to the post-mortem investigation.After Ekeng died, a Romanian doctor performed an autopsy at the National Institute of Legal Medicine in Bucharest. Ekeng, a 26-year-old midfielder for Dinamo Bucharest, wasn’t given adequate first aid at the stadium, a doctor at the hospital said. On the ECG, the signal showed a "QRS complex," the spiky part of the graph, indicating Ekeng's ventricles were contracting.Doctors could not keep the fragile rhythm constant. A few minutes later, Marcel Essombe arrived. "Because he had been feeling just fine; he was in top form. The first payout was delayed as Dinamo did not know where to send the money. Rest in peace. He would train almost every day of the week, run on Mont Febe, a lush jungle-covered mountain in Yaounde, and play matches every weekend, leaving little time to go out to parties with friends.Millions of African boys aspire to make it as footballers, perceiving the sport as a way out of poverty, an opportunity to better their condition and that of their families. Patrick Ekeng former footballer from Cameroon Central Midfield * Mar 26, 1990 in Yaoundé, Cameroon Patrick Ekeng - Player profile | Transfermarkt For using this site, please activate JavaScript. Hanca heard Ekeng making strange breathing sounds. ".The Romanian authorities shut Puls down for around six weeks until it passed a further inspection. Via her lawyer, Duta turned down a request for comment. When they returned, Rednic, whose contract would not be renewed at the end of the season, told them they had to refocus on their football and in particular the upcoming cup final. "Le Man's president knew the sporting director of Canon Yaounde quite well," Nana says. Duta and a male assistant, both dressed in white coats and carrying holdalls, ran forward separately. Pop explained his powers of investigation, and the director of the company finally appeared from within; he said he was bombarded by media calls and had sequestered himself, but was subsequently co-operative.Dusciuc and Pop began their inspection, and the findings were immediately damning. After the bird disappeared, Steaua scored. Some 15 minutes into the match, Sergiu Hanca saw a black bird flying above them. I was like, 'Come on, bro, move. After the incident at White Hart Lane, Sharma went back and examined Muamba's original screening results. Dinamo eventually determined to wire the funds to Ekeng's own account in Bucharest.In May, Nathalie confirmed in a phone conversation that Dinamo paid for her husband's funeral, but she has received nothing more. 11, in white, and Ekeng's No. Marinescu wrote the description "healthy from a cardiology point of view" on his report, signed and stamped it. In the dry season, red dust rises up during games, sheathing players so they look like sprites.A statue of a Cameroonian dignitary named Mbida Minkoulou Alphonse overlooks the ground. The authorities locked the small contingent of travelling fans in an enclosure; within minutes they had lit a flare and started throwing coins. There were other Francophone players of African origin in the Dinamo squad, notably the French-Ivorian midfielder Harlem Gnohere. ".Dinamo offered to continue to pay out Ekeng's monthly wage until the end of his contract. This is his story.Patrick Ekeng began his football career on a dusty pitch in Anguissa, a neighbourhood in the fourth arrondissement of the Cameroonian capital Yaounde. Danciulescu held his head in his hands; he was weeping. At 1:16, the ambulance, which had driven down the west side of the field as far as the dugouts, turned onto the turf, crossing paths with the retreating buggy as it approached Ekeng. She is currently under administrative sanction, though, limiting her ability to practise as a doctor, and must periodically report to the authorities. He's there, you're not going to leave him like that as well? Ekeng entered a state known as electromechanical dissociation, when the readout on an ECG suggests a patient should have a pulse but no pulse can be found. Its device combined Hildan's No. Previously, he played for Spanish club Cordoba CF, Swiss club Lausanne, and French club Le Mans.Just two weeks ago, Ekeng netted his first goal for Dinamo, against Steaua in the semi-final of the Romanian Cup.Ekeng is survived by a wife, with whom he was due to join in France in a matter of days.Players, his former team and Brazilian soccer legend Cafu were among those mourning his death.Leagues have considered increased medical screening for athletes in the incredibly strenuous sport.investigation was launched into his death,Romanian Football Federation announced on Saturday,first professional soccer player to die during a match. Nunca te olvidaremos amigo. Ekeng died aged 26 of a suspected heart attack after collapsing on the pitch playing for Dinamo Bucharest. The training ground felt haunted. The then-39-year-old was old enough to remember Catalin Hildan, another Dinamo player who died after collapsing on the pitch with cardiac arrest in 2000.Mircea Rednic, the Dinamo manager, stood with his one hand in his pocket and the other held to his face. Vlad Hosu, a Bucharest lawyer retained by Ekeng's mother and siblings, emphasises that the family did not ask for this measure. Born in 1990, to a mother who worked as a preacher, serving that role in her local church and in the media, Ekeng's passion was always football. "I don't understand," Feussi recalls. He also had another child by another woman.On Saturday, May 7, 2016, two inspectors from Romania's Department for Emergency Situations, Madalina Dusciuc and Bogdan Pop, visited Puls ambulance service. "It was very clear that they didn't wash the ambulances every day, or at least once per week," recalled Dusciuc.There were expired drugs in the ambulances. Although the camera pulls away at one stage, that conversation appears to culminate with the assistant placing the defibrillator to one side. "The autopsy report's nonsense," says Sharma. (The Resuscitation Council in the UK says it is usually safe to defibrillate a patient on a wet or metal surface, as long as the pads are applied directly to the patient's chest and there is no direct contact with the patient when the shock is delivered. Mircea Rednic, the coach, gave his squad a few days off before calling them back to training. Fifteen Puls ambulances carried them. He rolled Ekeng on his side, as though aiming for the recovery position.In the days that followed, the team doctor changed his story regarding his actions that night. She is not currently technically and legally accused of anything, as in the Romanian system the prosecution will only press charges at the end of the investigation, which is still ongoing (some early media coverage incorrectly stated she had already been charged). Due to ongoing legal investigations, the hospital declined to provide further comment with regard to Ekeng's treatment on the field, in the ambulance and in their facility.The block of flats stands in a hotel compound at Otopeni, outside Bucharest between the airport and Dinamo's training ground. "I know his heart is not beating since he left the stadium," the reporter said. As Ekeng settled in at Dinamo, Nathalie travelled over from France to see him periodically. Others operate small stands topped by crooked umbrellas.They sell juice, soft drinks, sweets, phone top-up cards and fresh sugar cane arrayed in white buckets. He was my idol. Eto'o, the pre-eminent Cameroonian footballer of all time, wrote a widely shared eulogy on.On May 15, 2016, after repatriation to Cameroon, a huge funeral took place in Yaounde. On the evening of May 6 last year, Dinamo Bucharest midfielder Patrick Ekeng ran out wearing his usual No. He didn't have any problems. "I then took care of Patrick because I already had a player at Le Mans. There was medical waste inappropriately stored in yellow plastic bags; there was dirt. In Sharma's view, a reasonable inference from the garbled pathology is that Ekeng did have issues with the musculature of his heart, the majority of which were probably genetic.Two minutes and 13 seconds after Ekeng collapsed, by which point he had received no attempted resuscitation and his survival chances had fallen by more than 14 per cent, he was wheeled on a gurney to the rear of the ambulance. Condolences to his family. On Tuesday, January 12 last year, he reported to the National Institute of Sports Medicine in Bucharest. The emergency doctor who attended Cameroonian Patrick Ekeng prior to his death while playing in Romania in 2016 has been handed an 18-month suspended jail sentence for negligence.Ekeng was 26 when he collapsed and died of heart failure during Dinamo Bucharest's match against Viitorul in May 2016.The following month, Elena Duta, the medical specialist in the ambulance which took the midfielder to hospital, was.who said she made no attempt to resuscitate the player.On Thursday, a Romanian court also ordered her to pay 200,000 euro ($227,000) in damages, while also sentencing her to 60 days of community service.Duta was not immediately available for comment following the ruling, the news agency Reuters reported.Ekeng fell to the floor in the 70th minute of a televised Romanian league match between Dinamo and Viitorul.He was pronounced dead two hours later in hospital, where staff were unable to resuscitate him upon his arrival.An autopsy showed the player was suffering from multiple serious heart problems, but the Bucharest prosecutor - speaking in 2016 - said: "Even if among Patrick Ekeng's causes of death were the cardiac problems he suffered from, by her unjustified inaction Elena Duta removed any chance of survival. RIP Patrick Ekeng,No hay palabras para expresar nuestro dolor por la muerte de Patrick Ekeng. He also played for Cameroon. View the profiles of people named Patrick Ekeng. Do something! In the stands, the English fan Carpenter, a trained first-aider from his London job as a postman, saw the medics put the distinctive red case down. During trials at Anguissa, dozens of children perch on the sidelines of the pitch, their school books lying forgotten at their feet, to watch the older youths undergo training exercises or demonstrate their dribbling skills.Those local boys who do make good and reach the European professional leagues are household names; they gain a domestic status that borders on the divine. They called the office line again with no result. Yet the ambulance from the game the previous evening, the Volkswagen with plate B973LTD, had "Type A Ambulance"—the least well-equipped category—stamped clearly on its bodywork.By far the most damning finding came from the defibrillators. An,Ekeng had been on the field for seven minutes when he collapsed in the 70th minute of a match against Viitorul Constanta. ".That July, when Ekeng signed a three-year deal with the club, Le Mans ranked in the French first division. ",After the new season started, Dinamo once more played their local rivals Steaua, away at the National Arena. "I still feel bad, it's still fresh, it's still recent," she said. When they received no answer, they went down in person.According to Dusciuc and Pop, the compound appeared deserted. What are you doing?' Professional soccer player Patrick Ekeng died after collapsing during a home match in Bucharest on Friday, reportedly from a heart attack. I was like: 'What's happening? They sang songs about Romanian nationalism, as well as the usual verses about Hildan.Among the banners that almost obscured the view out of the enclosure, one showed the late Hildan's moustachioed face in outline. ".Unedited footage from a sideline camera operated by DigiSport, a Romanian broadcaster, provides a timeline of events that followed. "So he's probably dead." "The chances of survival drop by 5.5% with every minute," prosecutors said.Following the death of Ekeng, the world soccer players' union FIFPro raised concerns about the level of first-aid treatment for footballers in Romania.Eighteen-times Romanian champions Dinamo later retired the number 14 shirt as a mark of respect to Ekeng, who also played for clubs in Cameroon, France, Switzerland and Spain.Read about our approach to external linking. Shocking. "We don't train with pleasure how we did before this," he added. ".After coming on as a substitute, in the 70th minute Ekeng collapsed in the center circle. "Yes, I still feel that emptiness. From there he went into asystole, also known as flatline, when there is no activity in the heart at all.After that state had endured for five minutes, the doctors abandoned further resuscitation attempts. After the final whistle, Sergiu Hanca walked to the official stand where players' families sit and saw his wife crying; he rushed to the hospital as soon as he had showered. The only exception was the Volkswagen with license plate B973LTD, at the Dinamo game the night before.Already the situation seemed suspicious. "Maybe this is faith; I think we're cursed. At 1:28 the ambulance and crew were on scene.Eleven seconds later, an assistant broke out from inside the ambulance a bright red case; that bag contained an Nihon Kohden TEC-5531K model defibrillator, a device used to electrically shock a patient's heart back into correct rhythm.For several seconds from 1:40 onwards, Batineanu exchanged words with an assistant. At 1:11, they crossed the barriers at the edge of the pitch. As the DigiSport television camera panned to follow him, the defibrillator remained on the grass.Ionel Danciulescu, a former player now employed as director of sport at Dinamo, stood back from the vehicle in a red zipped top and jeans. '".The wider situation was chaotic. Ionel Danciulescu also went to the hospital; he heard news of Ekeng's death from a police officer. Ekeng's tightest friendship in Bucharest, though, was with Marcel Essombe, a striker also from Cameroon in his late 20s who had come to Bucharest by way of French clubs Pacy Vallee-d'Eure and Jura Sud. The boy from Anguissa had secured a professional contract with a European top-flight side.Ekeng lay motionless on the turf. The hospital's spokesperson says NO pro first aid was given to Ekeng at the stadium. "I just see what's happening; he's on the floor. "When I heard the news, I couldn't believe it at all that he was dead," Steven Manas, the 19-year-old Scoutte Detection du Cameroun player, says. "From my point of view, Ekeng didn't have any problem," she told the Romanian newspaper.Cardiac soft-tissue abnormalities—the likely conditions affecting Ekeng—are much harder to detect than electrical faults. The Cameroonian would make 12 appearances for the team before his death.Feussi was watching the Dinamo game on television with his own teammates from Concordia Chiajna when he saw his fellow Cameroonian go down. It was as if the president had died. The hospital is 2 minutes away from Dinamo's ground.Our cameroon football family has lost a brother. She continues to grieve for the man she met at school and married in 2011. 14, in black. 14, and a victory in the Romanian cup final would have granted Dinamo that trophy for a 14th time. After 40 minutes and approximately the 12th round of external shocks, Ekeng's heart went into idioventricular rhythm, a slower than usual rhythm. Ekeng communicated with teammates in a pidgin of French and broken English, the usual argot of international football. Romanian regulations require the presence of an ambulance at organised sporting events. ".The prosecutor's office quoted forensic scientists as saying 95% of people with similar heart problems survive cardiac arrest if defibrillation is administered within 60 seconds. "I could see he entered cardiopulmonary arrest," he told journalists.