The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
PESCARA, Italy — Former Italy Under-21 midfielder Piermario Morosini died Saturday after suffering cardiac arrest and collapsing on the pitch during his team Livorno’s Serie B match at Pescara. He was 25.
Edoardo De Blasio, a cardiologist at Pescara’s Santo Spirito hospital, confirmed Morosini’s death, saying “unfortunately he was already dead when he arrived at hospital. He didn’t regain consciousness.”
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Morosini, who was on loan from Serie A side Udinese, fell to the ground in the 31st minute of the match and tried unsuccessfully to get up several times before receiving urgent medical attention on the pitch. A defibrillator was used on the player, who also had his heart massaged, before an ambulance arrived on the pitch to take him to hospital where doctors tried to revive him for around an hour and a half.
A consultant in the hemodynamics department at the hospital, who was watching the game and rushed to help before the ambulance arrived, said Morosini never regained consciousness.
“Morosini never had a single heartbeat again,” Leonardo Paloscia said. “From when I arrived he never gave a sign of revival, not in his respiration nor his heartbeat. When I arrived everything (his heart, respiration) was stopped.”
Copyright 2012 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution