MADISON, Wis. — The death of sports journalist Grant Wahl while covering the World Cup in Qatar is bringing attention to the condition that led to his death.
Wahl’s wife wrote on his website that an autopsy determined the soccer writer died “from the rupture of a slowly growing, undetected ascending aortic aneurysm with hemopericardium.”
The condition, according to the American Heart Association, happens in the aorta, the main artery that carries blood from the heart to the rest of the body. It can lead to a rupture where blood bursts out into the body or a dissection that sees blood split the layers of the artery wall causing a build of blood that can leak.
“Unfortunately, most of the time these do not present with any signs or symptoms,” said Dr. Paul DiMusto, a vascular surgeon at UW Health and an associate professor in the Division of Vascular Surgery within the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. “Oftentimes we’re finding them now on imaging that’s being done for other reasons, so someone’s getting an X-ray, a CT scan, an ultrasound and we notice this as an incidental finding.”
When someone with the condition does show symptoms, they will present much like Wahl’s with a little pain that can escalate quickly, he added.
“In general, aneurysms, when they rupture, about 50% of them cause sudden death as it sounds like was the case here,” DiMusto said, “and about 50% of the people make it to the hospital and can undergo some sort of repair, but usually that means a long hospitalization, rehabilitation and things like that afterwards, so really our goal is to identify these and fix them before they get to the point of rupturing.”
Men are more at risk for aortic aneurysms than women, as are people with family histories of them and people who smoke.
Lowering blood pressure can also help reduce a person’s risk.
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