Athlete dies after Muncie 70.3

Triathlon Forum
21

Sorry, that is a tough one to be so close to this terrible incident. Not sure about the its not a cardiac event though, do we have an autopsy to go on? And yes it could be one of many other things, but typically it is a cardiac event, possibly a stroke too. Which both can then lead to drowning as the cause of death, which really is not accurate in the grand scheme of most of these water deaths…

The over heating could be a thing too, but with wetsuits it is usually more about the constriction and subsequent panic that follows…This close to home for you, glad you shared your …story, and his

22

Thanks for sharing this story (and about your brother in law). I hope you’re able to find peace in that your camaraderie and friendliness with Eric before the start was a good, happy moment for you both.

23

His cause of death has been revealed.

"Delaware County Coroner Gavin Greene said Tuesday that an autopsy determined Dr. Eric Wolfe died from “myocardial infarction, due to ischemic heart disease.”

Link to article below

Coroner: IRONMAN triathlete who died in Muncie had a heart attack | wthr.com

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24

Like I posted up earlier, that was the most likely cause. And from the sounds of it, a coronary calcium scan might of headed this off for him. At the very least it would have given him a lot more information to go on and help make more informed choices about racing…

Go get your scores folks, lots of threads here that have talked about this. Super easy, cheap or free if on Medicare, in and out in 20 minutes.;

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25

The CCS is a great metric for CAD and I would recommend it to anyone but, damn, this guy was only 43? That’s tragic! I wonder if his genetic history indicated CAD as a risk factor. You would think being a doctor he would have been very aware of his own risks and any testing that would mitigate them. Tragic for him and his family!

26

Very tragic. Regarding age, there has been something these last few years that have increased the amount of heart damage in males.

When I come across summaries like this, I can’t help but wish we had more active questions about the whole issue no matter the origin as it’s a very clear risk factor that is now potentially lurking beneath the surface for so many.

Compared with controls, COVID-19 infection raises myocarditis risk 3.5×, versus 1.5× for Pfizer and 6.2× for Moderna*. Vaccine-related myocarditis does tend to be less severe, with lower mortality and faster recovery, than myocarditis from COVID-19 itself. But if there’s damage spread around in various populations some of these cases certainly aren’t helped by it.

*After only two doses, to say nothing of the bizarrely recommended “cocktails” people flippantly suggested.

But with him being a doctor, no doubt he was on the receiving end of viral exposure and likely multiple rounds of vaccination.

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27

I’m glad we received the cause of death information on Dr. Wolfe so we don’t have to speculate. I’m going to add one more thing I noticed that out of respect I didn’t mention, but if it could possibly alert someone to a potential issue then maybe it could be helpful. My medical knowledge is limited, so this observation may be meaningless.
I was going to make a joke to Eric about how extremely white his feet were, but my wife always informs me that my humor is not always taken the way it’s meant. It struck me that even if your feet never were out of socks they wouldn’t be that white. So now I’m wondering if he was experiencing circulation problems before the start of the swim, and should I have said something.

28

I don’t know how much you know about medical studies and research but you are misinterpreting the paper.

I’ve managed COVID patients since early in the pandemic (4 hospitals, nursing homes and outpatient), so probably thousands of patients. I’ve seen one vaccine related myocarditis which resolved rapidly (came into hospital with chest pains and markers for potential heart damage was high, followed up with me in 1 week and he was back to normal activity and markers were back to normal). He was 18 years old like in most studies like one you posted, typically happens in adolescents and young adults. You need to know that myocarditis can be caused by COVID and other viruses too. There are multiple papers and studies that show severity of myocarditis is much more consequential from virus vs vaccine induced myocarditis.
The paper you cited even says “mortality and major morbidity are less and recovery is faster with mRNA vaccine-associated myocarditis compared to COVID-19 infection.” Whether vaccine or actual viral induced myocarditis, they resolve fairly quickly.

you’re making a poor assumption that he as a physician has more viral exposure and more vaccinations. i have colleagues on both end of the spectrum. I know of some who still wear N95 in every clinical setting and some who don’t mask at all. Most of my colleagues have only been boosted 1-2x.

I’m not a cardiologist, but have some training, you can’t link myocarditis to myocardial infarct like how you are trying to. I have a lot of friends who are cardiologist, some endurance athletes. None of them will say no to vaccinations and even encourage it for their cardiac patients.

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29

I don’t want to either but hard in my profession. As mentioned in an other post in this thread, I’m not a cardiologist. I’m infectious disease.
What we know is he had a myocardial infarction, MI. One of the biggest risk factors is genetics/family history. Look at Tim O’donnell who’s super fit and still got one and luckily survived.
Dr. Wolfe is only a few years younger than me. When I turned 40 I went and got the full workup because I had some cardiac issues (arrhythmias).
This is just me and not saying case with Dr. Wolfe but 40s is a weird transition stage in life as I don’t like admitting I’m midlife especially being fit and people thinking I’m much younger. I probably feel better now than in my 20s. I also think physicians/healthcare workers can be their own worst enemies. I’m proof of that as I’ve delayed my colonoscopy (but now scheduled).

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30

I was going to come on and say basically the same thing, but didnt want to waste my time. Some folks here take every chance they can get to discourage the vaccine, even making up shit or misrepresenting actual studies. They find a few cases on one hand, vs the millions on the other and think this is statistically significant to warrant our attention…

And to others who were questioning his heart disease and age, like I said before, we have had threads on here talking about calcium scores, and some in their 30’s/40’s who had horrendous ones. You just cannot know without testing, and you could be the fittest human on the planet with severe blockage…

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31

You guys can’t get over the possibility that there are problems here. Read this:

That’s from the study people. Covid causes problems. Did I say otherwise? I LITERALLY stated in my comment that the paper says vaccine damage was less severe than covid damage.

But you have to have the ideological blinders on to say no problems here, you’re just twisting the study.

It’s bizarre a “doctor” would claim I’m making unfounded claims when I suggested doctors would have likely more viral and vaccine exposure. Seriously? You want me to pull up vaccination uptake rates AND covid infection rates among first responders? Holy cow people. The man was likely more at risk just from that.

And people are wondering, “huh, he was young and seemingly fit, wonder what’s up?”

If you aren’t considering this because you think I have an axe to grind you need to look in the mirror.

32

I’m trying not to judge, but if you’re going to pull specific papers to back your point, you can’t then add a big assumption like the one you made (doctors likely having more viral and vaccine exposure) and expect folks to accept it without a similar paper backing it up. Even if you’re right (I don’t know, honestly), that’s a very big jump, and has nothing to do with an ax to grind.

After reading that abstract myself, it seemed to come down pretty clearly on the side that vaccine myocarditis risks overall << COVID-19 related myocarditis. When your own quote was “When I come across summaries like this, I can’t help but wish we had more active questions about the whole issue no matter the origin as it’s a very clear risk factor that is now potentially lurking beneath the surface for so many”, I myself didn’t get that feeling of confusion or incompleteness from that paper you cited - it was actually the opposite, with it being pretty clear that in their minds it was a significantly better management method to use the vaccine even with regards to myocarditis.

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I think you’ve got to be kidding.

Vaccine uptake rates among doctors
80-90+%

Relatively early in the pandemic it was revealed that health care workers were much more likely to be infected. Here’s one from early 2021 (so the data is even earlier)
https://publications.ersnet.org/content/erjor/early/2021/04/15/2312054100080-2021

You seem to be arguing against something I didn’t say. It’s as if you’re arguing in behalf of vaccine programs vs natural infection. I said nothing but provided the data that heart damage is observed to occur in all forms, and with moderna it’s even more likely. This is after 2 shots. Who knows how many people are getting. Hence the questions, not the head in the sand some people seem to be suggesting.

This is all in response to, “this guy is so young”, to which is no one is thinking that doctors who just came through the other side of a pandemic might have good reason for heart damage beyond cheeseburgers and lack of swim warmups.

Repeating the part about temporary affect I cited as if it’s dismissed my argument is weak. For one, thats an aggregate, not individual as some individuals can be worse and we are talking about an individual.

Two, any heart damage is serious and before the vaccines shots were shown to cause myocarditis, we were often told that any heart damage is a real problem so we need to get vaccinated (not disputing that even, but it was never wanted to be known at the time that the vaccines cause this too).

Three, how many boosters have there been. When something causes heart damage, do you typically respond, ya but it healed after a while, so don’t hesitate to do it again in 6 months and again in 6 months after that?

And again, this is all an aside. The point is a combination of covid and vaccination damage should be considered as a possibility for undermining that integrity of the heart here. I would not be personally fine knowing my heart was damaged by something and then saying yes but it’s healed now so I’ll do it again and trust there’s no lasting consequences.

How do we test and truly know the heart is all fine six months to a year after? That’s what I’m happy to hear from doctors on.

35

Take it outside you two. This isn’t the most appropriate thread.

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36

Healthcare is my profession so I had to say something about misinformation/misinterpretation.

I’m saddened by and grieving the loss of Dr. Wolfe.

Don’t put me in same boat as the other guy.

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37

Sigh, not for Canadians. :frowning:

38

I would imagine next time you are in the states, you could easily get in and get the scan, and pay what we all do here, $150 to $250 from the places I have gone to. Just make sure to get your docs note first…

Of course you all will have to wait until Trump is gone, and we support you in that effort too… (-;

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I’ve looked into that. My understanding is that I would have to make a trip to the US to get a doc appt, to get a requisition for the test from him/her. Then make another trip down to have the scan. Then another trip down to see the doc again to get the result.

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It’s not as hard as you think. My doctor made a request for a calcium score with a private company near my home. I was contacted to make an appt as I was leaving my doctor’s office. They typically have appts available within the next 24-48 hours. You can also request a disk of the scan and they burn it before you leave the office. Their in-house radiologist reads the scan and sends results to both you and your doctor. It cost me ~$250. I live in Texas.

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41

In Mississippi you just call and make an appointment. It’s $99 for scan and bloodwork. My score was zero but it did find I have a bicuspid aortic valve, so now I get a yearly echo and visit with cardiologist.