BUCHAREST - The Romanian Football Federation (FRF) announced Tuesday to purchase defibrillators for all affiliated clubs following the death of a footballer during a match last Friday.
"We plan a purchase of defibrillators this summer for all clubs affiliated to the Romanian Football Federation," FRF Chairman Razvan Burleanu told the FRF General Assembly on Tuesday.
The chairman added that in the next period the federation would consider a possible amendment to the regulation because at the moment the Sports Law provides for the obligatory presence at football matches of a "type B ambulance", endowed with defibrillator, a resuscitation kit, oxygen and aspiration kit, while FRF regulation for organizing football activity specifies the requirement of two "emergency medical service vehicles."
Cameroonian player of Dinamo Bucharest Patrick Ekeng died at 26 on Friday evening, after collapsing on the playfield in minute 70 of a top league match, without having made contact with an opponent.
The postmortem revealed a pre-existent heart condition, and preliminary police investigations uncovered irregularities in the private ambulance service, which was slow to intervene, and without the necessary first aid equipment.
A doctor from the Floreasca Emergency Hospital, where Ekeng was rushed, claimed that the patient was brought at emergency room in cardiac arrest, with an ambulance without resuscitation maneuvers.
