The wife of American sports journalist Grant Wahl announced on Wednesday that his death, while covering the Argentina-Netherlands World Cup quarter-final in Qatar, was caused by a ruptured aortic aneurysm, sweeping rumors about links to his vaccination against Covid.
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“
An autopsy was performed by the New York City Medical Examiner's Office.
Grant died of a ruptured ascending aortic aneurysm, which had slowly grown undetected, accompanied by a hemopericardium
,” wrote on the blog of her husband Celine Gounder, a renowned American epidemiologist based At New York.
Hemopericardium is a hemorrhage in the membrane that surrounds the heart.
“
His death is not linked to Covid.
His death is unrelated to his vaccination status.
There is nothing suspicious in his death
, ”insisted the doctor, herself a specialist in infectious diseases and Covid.
Since the death of the 49-year-old journalist on Friday, theories had emerged on social media that his death could be due to vaccines against Covid-19.
Grant Wahl distinguished himself at the start of the World Cup by wearing a rainbow T-shirt in support of LGBT+ people, which led to him being held up by security personnel at the Ahmad bin Ali stadium before the match United States - Wales on November 21, an incident which also fueled rumors of his death.
According to Céline Gounder, “
the chest pressure he (had) felt shortly before his death may have represented the initial symptoms
”.
But “
no resuscitation or shocks could have saved him
”.
The journalist had mentioned his pain on his blog.
“
My body finally gave up on me.
Three weeks with little sleep, lots of stress and work can have this effect on you (...).
I could feel my upper chest supporting a new level of pressure and discomfort
,” he wrote.
Celine Gounder once again paid tribute to her husband, famous in the United States for football fans, a sport he helped popularize in his country by covering the men's and women's teams.
His career had taken him from Sports Illustrated magazine to CBS Sports and he hosted a paid-subscription freelance blog.
He had written several books on football, including one on David Beckham.
