Police are investigating the death of a football fan at Gillette Stadium after he collapsed while watching the New England Patriots play the Miami Dolphins on Sunday night.
The 53-year-old suffered what Massachusetts State Police have described as a “medical event” while in the 308/309 section during the fourth quarter of the match, before being rushed to hospital.
The victim was pronounced dead just before midnight at Sturdy Memorial Hospital in Attleboro, while the sequence of events leading to his death remains unclear and under investigation. No fees apply at this time.
The incident was not the first medical emergency to occur in the stands during Sunday night’s match, after another man was rescued by heroic firefighters who administered CPR after collapsing in the stands.
It was initially feared that the fan, whose identity is currently unknown, suffered cardiac arrest in the stands NFL Network host Bridget Condon.
There were two separate incidents in the stands during the Patriots game and one man died
Condon said a firefighter, who happened to be a friend of her father, reportedly noticed the ventilator in distress and sprang into action, administering life-saving CPR.
“My parents are at the Patriots game with their friends and someone in their section just had a heart attack and my dad’s friend (also a firefighter) started doing CPR on him and saved his life,” Condon told X, formerly known like Twitter.
‘Forget football. This is the best thing I’ve heard all day.’
However, the Patriots confirmed to DailyMail.com that the spectator did not suffer a heart attack, but fainted.
They said a fellow fan administered compressions, but luckily they weren’t necessary in the end.
Anthony Colella and Mark McCullough are the off-duty firefighters who tried to perform CPR on the fan that collapsed and eventually woke up during the Patriots-Dolphins game
Damar Hamlin (left) is back on the Bills roster after suffering an on-field cardiac arrest
Condon identified the two firefighters involved as Anthony Colella of Johnston RI Fire and Mark McCullough of Needham Fire.
The Patriots added that the fan “left the stadium awake and alert in an ambulance to a Boston hospital for observation.”
The topic of fans and players collapsing in NFL stadiums is a hot topic following the situation involving Buffalo Bills’ Damar Hamlin, who went into cardiac arrest on the field last season.
He was saved by the medical staff and is now back on the team’s roster nine months later, although he has yet to play in another competitive NFL game.