Four weeks after Bolton’s Fabrice Muamba improbably survived a cardiac arrest on the pitch during an FA Cup match, a similar scenario has played out in Italy — but this time without the happy ending. Livorno midfielder Piermario Morosini collapsed on the pitch after suffering a cardiac arrest in the 31st minute of a Serie B match against Pescara (as with the Muamba incident, we will not be showing video of this).
Medical workers attempted to resuscitate the 25-year-old on the pitch, but according to the AP, a cardiologist at the hospital to which Morosini was taken reported that he was dead upon arrival and never regained consciousness. The match was abandoned as players left the pitch in tears.
A defibrillator was used on Morosini on the pitch, but the ambulance was held up by a police car blocking its path. From the AP:
”He looked at me in the eyes when he was taken into the ambulance,” Pescara’s general manager, Danilo Iannascoli, told Sky Italia. ”We are living through a drama.”
Italian media reports said a car belonging to traffic police blocked the ambulance’s way into the stadium and a window had to be broken so the car could be moved.
”I don’t know if the ambulance was late, but I know that the entrance onto the pitch was blocked by a vehicle,” Iannascoli said. ”Morosini collapsed, he tried to get back up but then collapsed again.”
Pescara president Daniele Sebastiani said that Morosini suffered “three cardiac arrests in quick succession.” Morosini repeatedly tried to get back up after his initial fall, while his teammates shouted at the referee — who had his back to Morosini — to have play stopped.
Morosini, a former Italian youth national team player, was on loan at Livorno from Serie A side Udinese. The Serie A club informed Italian football’s governing body (the FGIC) that they would not be able to play their scheduled match against Inter on Saturday evening after such a devastating shock and all Italian matches across all divisions scheduled for this weekend were suspended a short time later.
