{"id":215,"date":"2008-03-18T16:40:21","date_gmt":"2008-03-19T00:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/?p=215"},"modified":"2008-03-18T16:40:21","modified_gmt":"2008-03-19T00:40:21","slug":"shays-autopsy-released","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/2008\/shays-autopsy-released\/","title":{"rendered":"Shay’s Autopsy Released"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ryan Shay, 28, who died tragically last fall during the Men’s Olympic Marathon Trials, died of natural causes.<\/p>\n

From the New York Times<\/a>:<\/p>\n

More than four months after Shay\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death, the medical examiner completed the autopsy and toxicology reports, describing his condition as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153cardiac arrhythmia due to cardiac hypertrophy with patchy fibrosis of undetermined etiology.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

All of his toxicology reports came back negative. He had previously been diagnosed with an enlarged heart, which may have been a factor in his death. Shay was an accomplished marathoner with a 2:14 PR.<\/p>\n

My wife an RN said this:<\/p>\n

His heart had a bad rhythm because his heart was enlarged due to an unknown tissue or something.<\/em><\/p>\n

I am not a doctor but here are definitions from around the web for each phrase of the report:<\/p>\n

Cardiac Arrhthmia<\/a> – a term for any of a large and heterogenous group of conditions in which there is abnormal electrical activity in the heart. The heart beat may be too fast or too slow, and may be regular or irregular.<\/p>\n

Cardiac Hypertrophy<\/a> – is a thickening of the heart muscle (myocardium) which results in a decrease in size of the chamber of the heart, including the left and right ventricles. A common cause of cardiac hypertrophy is high blood pressure (hypertension) and heart valve stenosis.<\/p>\n

Fibrosis<\/a> – is the formation or development of excess fibrous connective tissue in an organ or tissue as a reparative or reactive process, as opposed to a formation of fibrous tissue as a normal constituent of an organ or tissue.<\/p>\n

Patchy Fibrosis <\/strong>just means that there was excess tissue growing in patches around the organ – in this case the heart.<\/p>\n

Eitiology <\/a>– is the study of causes<\/p>\n

Undetermined Eitiology <\/strong>would just mean of an unknown cause.<\/p>\n

It is good to finally know what happened to Shay.\u00c2\u00a0 Our thoughts and prayers are still with the entire family and the elite running community as they mourn his loss.<\/p>\n

HT: The Final Sprint <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ryan Shay, 28, who died tragically last fall during the Men’s Olympic Marathon Trials, died of natural causes. From the New York Times: More than four months after Shay\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death, the medical examiner completed the autopsy and toxicology reports, describing his condition as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153cardiac arrhythmia due to cardiac hypertrophy with patchy fibrosis of undetermined etiology.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[30,4,32,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","category-information","category-legends","category-marathon"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4iaAv-3t","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":228,"url":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/2008\/cause-of-death-for-wisconsin-marathoner-determined\/","url_meta":{"origin":215,"position":0},"title":"Cause of Death for Wisconsin Marathoner Determined","author":"crossn81","date":"April 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Doctors have determined the cause of death for Adam Nickel, 27 of Madison Wisconsin. You may recall that Nickel died March 2, shortly after completing the Little Rock Marathon. The Pioneer Press reports that: a post-mortem examination showed Nickel had \"multifocal small coronary artery fibromuscular dysplasia,\" or microscopically small heart\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Health"","block_context":{"text":"Health","link":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/category\/health\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1215,"url":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/2009\/triathlons-twice-as-deadly-as-marathon\/","url_meta":{"origin":215,"position":1},"title":"Triathlons Twice as Deadly as Marathon","author":"crossn81","date":"April 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"A recent study by the Minneapolis Heart Institute provides data that twice as many people die, per million during triathlons than marathons. 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Well, now is your chance as Alison Wade recently published a cookbook, the proceeds of which go to two Foundations dear to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Charity"","block_context":{"text":"Charity","link":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/category\/charity\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.runnerscookbook.com\/runnerscookbookcover.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":107,"url":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/2007\/olympic-trials-triumph-and-tragedy\/","url_meta":{"origin":215,"position":3},"title":"Olympic Trials: Triumph and Tragedy","author":"crossn81","date":"November 7, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"In an amazing performance early Saturday morning, Ryan Hall shattered the Olympic Marathon Trials record in an amazing 6 mile breakaway to finish in 2:09:02 (4:55).\u00a0 He finished over 2 minutes ahead of his soon to be teammate Dathan Ritzenhein who broke away and finished in 2:11:07 (5:00).\u00a0 Third place\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Olympics"","block_context":{"text":"Olympics","link":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/category\/olympics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":252,"url":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/2008\/april-highlights\/","url_meta":{"origin":215,"position":4},"title":"April Highlights","author":"crossn81","date":"May 3, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I can't believe it is May already. 5 months in the Twin Cities and we are enjoying it all (except for the endless bouts of snow!) 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