Russian hockey player Alexei Cherepanov, who collapsed and died during a game, had heart problems and probably should not have been allowed to play, a regional investigator suggested Tuesday. Yulia Zhukova said Cherepanov, who died Monday playing for Avangard Omsk in a Continental Hockey League game outside of Moscow, apparently had chronic ischemia - a medical condition when not enough blood gets to the heart or other organs. “Checks will be conducted to clarify, in particular, why the sportsman with such an illness went onto the ice,” Zhukova said. Cherepanov's agent, however, said NHL tests showed him to be healthy. A lawmaker suggested that the 19-year-old first-round draft pick for the New York Rangers may have died due to negligence on the part of paramedics. Pavel Krasheninnikov, who sits on the Russian Hockey Federation's supervisory council and is a member of the State Duma, said there was no ambulance on duty at the Moscow region arena where Cherepanov was playing. He also asserted emergency workers took too long to respond and didn't have a defibrillator - a medical machine that shocks the heart. It was unclear how much time it took paramedics to respond. “There are elements of negligence here,” Krasheninnikov said.
