Brazilian soccer player Ronaldo suffered a heart attack just before the 1998 World Cup final, when Brazil lost to France national team, by a score of 0-3, said in an interview with Mediaset the cardiologist Bruno Caru, informs the As newspaper. Bruno Caru, president of Italian Society of Cardiology for Sport, examined all documentation on file for Ronaldo dating back to 1998. Caru worked with doctor Piero Volpi from Inter Milan, the Italian soccer club Ronaldo where played in 1998. During the 1998 World Cup, Volpi was sent to Paris by the management of Inter Milan to investigate Ronaldo’s health problems.
“Ronaldo was in bed watching a Formula 1 race on TV and, after an abnormal bending of the neck he compressed the carotid glomus (a small cluster of chemoreceptors responsible for regulating heart rate and blood pressure. The heart rate dropped, leading to fainting and seizures”, said Caru.
Roberto Carlos, Ronaldo’s roommate at the World Cup in France, told the doctors that it was an attack of epilepsy, and the Brazilian soccer player was taken to hospital and treated at the department of neurology. “There were various tests made, but we well know that a neurologist do not waste his time for an electrocardiogram, which I did with Volpi when Ronaldo returned from Paris. The electrocardiogram showed a very low heart rate”, explained the doctor.
Subsequently, the medicines taken by the player were indicated for epilepsy attacks, and have affected Ronaldo for several days. “Physicians have taken in consideration Roberto Carlos’ diagnosis and Ronaldo was given a powerful medicine for epilepsy, the one used by Marilyn Monroe to commit suicide that reduce brain activity. This explains his playing during the final game against France. And that explains why the player fell on the stairs of the airplane as he was drunk at his arrival in Brazil, after the World Cup”, said Bruno Caru.
