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Fabrice Muamba had no heartbeat for 78 minutes
Fabrice Muamba playing for England U21s. PHOTO/Tony O’Brien/Action Images
Fabrice Muamba’s heart stopped beating for 78 minutes and “in effect, he was dead in that time,” Bolton’s team doctor said Wednesday.
The 23-year-old Bolton midfielder collapsed during an FA Cup match against Tottenham on Saturday after suffering from cardiac arrest. He was taken to London Chest Hospital and remains in intensive care.
Bolton’s Premier League game at Aston Villa on Tuesday was postponed. On Wednesday, with Muamba’s condition improving, the squad decided to go ahead with Saturday’s match against Blackburn.
Bolton will also make a return to White Hart Lane on Tuesday to play Tottenham in the FA Cup quarterfinal match that was abandoned after Muamba collapsed just before halftime.
Medics tried unsuccessfully to revive Muamba for 48 minutes on Saturday before he arrived at the hospital, Bolton team doctor Jonathan Tobin said. It then took another 30 minutes, after 15 shocks from a defibrillator, before the player’s heart started beating again.
“They were working on him without his heart having a muscular beat,” Tobin said. “Seventy-eight minutes without his heart beating and without him breathing. In effect, he was dead in that time … throughout the whole resuscitation period you are worrying.
“You know the longer the resuscitation goes on the less chance there is of survival, but this is slightly different. This is a very fit 23-year-old.”
