According to the emergency doctor in the European Championship stadium in Copenhagen, the Danish professional footballer Christian Eriksen was conscious again after his collapse after an electric shock.
As the intensive care physician Jens Kleinefeld from Cologne reported to the newspapers of the Funke media group in an interview, the defibrillator was used in the 29-year-old after just a few minutes of cardiac massage and the electric shock was triggered once.
“About 30 seconds later the player opened his eyes and I was able to speak to him directly.
That was a very moving moment, because with such medical emergencies in everyday life the chances of success are much lower, ”said Kleinefeld.
Eriksen had collapsed on the pitch in the first half of the game between Denmark and Finland (0-1).
The midfielder from Italian champions Inter Milan suffered a cardiac arrest last Saturday and has been in hospital ever since.
"Short circuit", then ventricular fibrillation
Kleinefeld said that he was still 99 percent sure in the stadium that the Dane would arrive stable at the hospital and stay stable there.
“When a professional athlete has been medically checked, it is usually a kind of“ short circuit ”that triggers the ventricular fibrillation.
The electric shock then gives the decisive impulse that the heart beats again.
With someone like that - unlike normal patients, for example with previous illnesses - the probability that the heart will stop again is minimal, ”explained the doctor.
Denmark will meet Belgium again in Copenhagen this Thursday in their second round match.