July 1 – The Romanian public prosecutor has charged an emergency doctor with the manslaughter of former Cameroon midfielder Patrick Ekeng who collapsed during a league match for Dinamo Bucharest in May and died of heart failure.
The prosecutor said Elena Duta, who rode in the ambulance which took Ekeng to hospital, made no attempt to resuscitate him.
An autopsy showed the player was suffering from multiple serious heart problems, but the Bucharest prosecutor 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. She did not evaluate the footballer’s state of health and made no attempt at resuscitation.”
Shortly after Ekeng’s death Romania’s interior ministry suspended the licence of the private ambulance company that transported him to hospital saying it found defibrillators with expired batteries in some ambulances belonging to the company involved and medicine used in resuscitation procedures that had expired.
Ekeng, 26, collapsed on the pitch seven minutes after going on as a substitute against Viitorul Constanta. After his death, world soccer players’ union FIFPro raised concerns about the level of first-aid treatment for footballers in Romania, saying “it is clear that some Romanian clubs have a history of skimping on medical facilities”.
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