The two months of suffering of the patient Mircea Lucescu: from cold and boil to acute myocardial infarction
Mircea Lucescu, the third most titled coach in the history of world football (he has 36 trophies), passed away on a bed in the ATI Department of the University Hospital. The 80-year-old coach's heart stopped beating at around 8.30pm on Tuesday. “The Truth” recreates the painful film of the last days of the life of “Il Luce”.
Mircea Lucescu trained in the rain and wind PHOTO Sportpictures
The first medical problems hit him at the beginning of February and they kept getting worse, against the background of the older operations that weakened his immunity. It started with a cold that sent him several times to a reserve at the University Hospital, where he was hospitalized for several days, on top of which a boil was superimposed. The FRF spoke of a “subcutaneous infection”. The federation did not give details about what it is about. Those close to the selector argued that it was nothing more than a cold that required antibiotics and specific treatment. At the hospital, the technician was visited by Mihai Stoichiță, technical director of the FRF, in the context in which the dam with Turkey, on March 26, was knocking on the door.
Control in Belgium
After a few days of rest at home, the national team coach went abroad for a complete set of analyses. Although he has the medical file at the University Hospital in Bucharest, Mircea Lucescu wanted another medical opinion. “Il Luce” went to Belgium by plane, and the purpose of the foreign trip is to find out from other doctors the reasons why he falls ill so often. In Belgium, “Il Luce” will be consulted by Prof. Dr. Ștefan Constantinescu. The 61-year-old specialist graduated from the “Carol Davila” Faculty of Medicine in Bucharest in 1988. In the meantime, he left for specializations, he has one in Memphis, in Tennessee, and one in Cambridge, in Massachusetts. He is one of the first specialists in molecular oncology in the world, says the cited source. He is a professor at the Catholic University of Leuven, 20 kilometers from Brussels, a university founded in 1425. He also consults at the Saint-Luc Hospital in Brussels. Upon returning to the country, the coach announced to the FRF that he is fit to train the national team and is sitting on the bench for the match in Istanbul. Lucescu had options to go to Istanbul or Vienna, to look for himself, but he preferred to go to the doctors in the Capital. “Those at the University know my medical history”, explained the technician why he chose the University Hospital, and not a private medical unit. “Il Luce” has had several operations over time: on his ribs, after the tram accident, on his heart (he has several stents implanted) and on his hip (the intervention took place at the Ponderas clinic). All of them shook his health, against the background of the huge stress caused by the activity on the technical bench.
He had been in the hospital since March 29
Upon returning to the country, during the analysis after the match against Turkey, “Il Luce” got sick, during the training conducted in the training camp in Mogoșoaia. It was March 29 when the coach fainted and was rushed to the University. There was talk about the fibrillations he might have had in the past, during the Brescia period. On Thursday, April 2, FRF officially announced that Lucescu is no longer the coach of the tricolors and that he is being offered another position within the national teams. After he appeared to have stabilized, on Friday, April 3, when he was scheduled to be discharged, he became ill again. He suffered an acute myocardial infarction, being resuscitated three times. On Sunday, April 5, he was moved to Internal Therapy, and his son came to Bucharest on Sunday night as an emergency. He went to the hospital with Neli's mother and Matei's son. FRF official Mihai Stoichiță also entered Lucescu's reserve, who admitted that he could not talk to the former selector, being intubated, and that he only lightly touched his hand.
At the family's suggestion, transfer to a clinic in Vienna was also considered. It's just that the condition of the patient, intubated and with heart problems, did not receive the OK from the doctors. On Tuesday, on the fateful day, the interdisciplinary team of doctors (which also included a specialist recommended and brought from France, cardiologist Marius Andronache) was to decide whether to install the ECMO device (it is an advanced medical method of life support, used in critical situations, when the lungs or heart can no longer function properly).
That was no longer the case. Tuesday's CT revealed complex problems, so the plan was scrapped. Bucharest Emergency University Hospital (SUUB) on Tuesday reported that “Il Luce”, who has been in a coma since Sunday morning, was subjected to a “complex CT investigation” which revealed two serious aspects: “multiple signs of cerebral ischemic vascular accidents” and “outbreaks of pulmonary thromboembolism”.
A few hours later, death occurred.
