Christian Eriksen having heart starter implanted after scary Euro 2020 collapse
Christian Eriksen, the Denmark and Inter Milan midfielder who collapsed during a Euro 2020 match on Saturday due to cardiac arrest, is receiving a device that can help prevent the same thing from happening again.
A statement released by the Danish Football Association and team doctor Morten Boesen on Thursday announced that Eriksen is being fit with a heart starter, known as an implantable cardioverter defibrillator.
"After Christian has been through different heart examinations, it has been decided that he should have an ICD," Boesen said in the statement. "This device is necessary after a cardiac attack due to rhythm disturbances.
"Christian has accepted the solution and the plan has moreover been confirmed by specialists nationally and internationally who all recommend the same treatment. We encourage everybody to give Christian and his family peace and privacy the following time."
An ICD is similar to a pacemaker, but instead of just regulating the heartbeat, an ICD can also send out an electrical shock to restart the heart and restore a regular heartbeat if the heart is beating irregularly. An ICD, which is implanted just under the skin and connected to the heart by two thin wires, can help prevent cardiac arrest.
Eriksen, 29, collapsed on the field Saturday in the middle of the Euro 2020 match between Denmark and Finland. Once medical personnel reached him, they discovered his heart had stopped. After using a defibrillator to restart it, Eriksen, who had regained consciousness, was rushed to the hospital for further tests. The match, which had been suspended after Eriksen's collapse, restarted later that evening.
Vaccine connection debunked
Following Eriksen's collapse, there was rampant and unfounded speculation that his cardiac arrest was related to or caused by the COVID-19 vaccine. False rumors were posted and reposted in multiple languages on both Twitter and Facebook. The New York Times discovered that the supposed "source" for some of those rumors didn't even exist.
Some cited as their source of information a supposed radio interview on an Italian station with an Inter Milan doctor. But the radio station, Radio Sportiva, said on Twitter that it had not interviewed any Inter Milan medical staff members about Mr. Eriksen’s condition.
None of the speculation or rumors were even remotely true, and for one simple reason: Eriksen hasn't been vaccinated. In an interview translated by the New York Times, Inter Milan director Giuseppe Marotta told Italian publication Gazzetta Dello Sport that Eriksen hasn't been vaccinated and he hasn't had COVID-19. His cardiac arrest was completely unrelated.
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