Bakersfield.com: Kern County news, events, classifieds, shopping, & search

RSS Feed   Print Story   E-mail Story        

Cal State swimmer died of a 'bad heart,' coroner says

BY EMILY HAGEDORN, Californian staff writer
e-mail: ehagedorn@bakersfield.com | Friday, Feb 29 2008 10:54 PM

Last Updated: Friday, Feb 29 2008 4:24 PM

Cal State Bakersfield swimmer Alexey Belyy died from “a bad heart,” the Kern County coroners office announced, a rare defect in someone so young and fit. And at least one health professional says the problem would have been difficult, if not impossible, to detect early.

The 26-year-old Russian died from hypertrophic and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, which means his heart was enlarged and his arteries were clogged, said Deputy Coroner John Van Rensselaer Friday morning.

“You wouldn’t suspect that in somebody that age,” Van Rensselaer said of the final finding.

CSUB men’s swimming coach Morgan Bailey said it’s fitting that the results were announced Friday.

The team is at the Conference USA Championships in Houston, and Friday would have been the 400-yard individual medley, “Alexey’s best event.”

“He was conspicuous by his absence today,” he said.

The news brings some closure, especially for the teammates who performed CPR on Belyy after he collapsed, Bailey said. “Maybe in some small way it relieves a little bit of tension in the sense that I don’t know what we could have done to prevent it.”

The death was deemed “natural,” and Belyy’s drug screen came back clean, Van Rensselaer said.

It’s hard to say if Belyy suffered a heart attack because acute heart attacks don’t leave much proof, he said. Belyy did suffer from an arrhythmia, an abnormal heart rhythm.

Belyy complained of chest pains after practice Jan. 11, the day he died, according to a January statement from the CSUB sports information office. He passed out at his apartment around 4 p.m. and died at Mercy Hospital about an hour and a half later.

An enlarged heart is common in athletes, said Dr. Marvin Derrick, cardiothorasic surgeon with California Cardiac Surgeons in Bakersfield.

Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, which includes coronary artery disease, is the leading cause of death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It is usually seen in people over 45, and diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, stress and smoking increase risk.

Since Belyy was so young and fit, the condition was probably hereditary, Derrick said. And it probably would have been difficult to detect earlier, even if Belyy had reported symptoms, like chest pain.

“Nobody would be suspecting it,” Derrick said. “You’d be thinking of pneumonia. Did he pull a muscle in his chest?”

Fewer than 1 percent of people ages 20-39 have coronary heart disease, according to the CDC and the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute.

The Cal State Bakersfield swimmer’s blood pressure and heart rate had been normal during health screenings, and he had no family history of life-threatening conditions, said Dr. Larry Yokoyama, the team’s physician, in January.