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The widow of soccer journalist Grant Wahl revealed he died of an aortic aneurysm while covering the World Cup in Qatar.
During the quarterfinal match between Argentina and the Netherlands, the 49-year-old reportedly fell back in his seat before medical workers responded to him. His wife, Céline Gounder, an infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist at New York University, told CBS Mornings it was likely something brewing for years, and wrote in a note on Substack her husband experienced symptoms prior to his death.
“Grant died from the rupture of a slowly growing, undetected ascending aortic aneurysm with hemopericardium,” Gounder wrote. “No amount of CPR or shocks would have saved him.”
But what is an aortic aneurysm? And what causes them? Here’s what to know:
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An aortic aneurysm is a bulge that occurs in the wall of the aorta, a major blood vessel that carries blood from the heart to the rest of the body, Patrice Desvigne-Nickens, a medical officer at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, told USA TODAY.
It can happen anywhere in the aorta.
There are two main types of aortic aneurysms: abdominal, through the abdomen, or thoracic, through the chest cavity.
