Chicago Bears defensive end Gaines Adams died Sunday morning in South Carolina, county coroner James T. Coursey said. Adams was 26. Adams was taken to the emergency room at Self Regional Hospital in Greenwood, where was pronounced dead, the Greenville News first reported. There are reports that Adams suffered a heart attack, but an official cause of death has not been determined, and an autopsy is planned. According to NFL Network, Coursey explained that "health issues" on Sunday morning prompted Adams' girlfriend to call an ambulance. Adams arrived at the hospital just after 8 a.m. ET and was pronounced dead less than a half hour later. Coursey said Adams had no history of health problems. Adams was born in Greenwood, South Carolina, and played his college football at Clemson. He was the 2006 ACC Defensive Player of the Year. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers chose him with the fourth overall pick in the 2007 NFL draft. The Buccaneers traded Adams to the Bears during the 2009 regular season. In his three-year NFL career, Adams played in 47 games and recorded 13.5 sacks. http://nfl.fanhouse.com/2010/01/17/report-gaines-adams-chicago-bears-defensive-end-dies-at-26/
NFL.com reporting it is cardiac arrest due to an enlarged heart. wow, this is so awful. RIP Gaines and prayers go out to his family. Enlarged heart, seems as though it is a condition he was born with.
Rest easy Gaines, you took a lot of grief while in the Tampa Bay Area, may you truly rest in peace......
He was having some health issues at home and his girlfriend called an ambulance. They are saying enlarged heart. I'm just curious but so many athletes seem to have issues with this so is it something that can not be detected?
Absolutely not it can and should be detected. The problem is you normally never associate that with a young in their prime pro athlete. You also have to look for it, meaning Adams himself may not have known or ignored symptoms for years. I would think and a Heart scan would detect it. My Dr. scanned my heart and you can watch everything on a tv monitor. Dr's should be able to easily tell with modern equipment. They just have to look. Which I am sure didn't happen.
Ugh, this is so grim and so scary. Just a few weeks ago a few towns over from me a 17 year old hockey with no apparent health issues just collapsed and died of a heart attack on the ice. It seems like stuff like this happens fairly often too. Cynics might immediately jump to coke or steroids, but I've heard plenty of situations like this one where I know the person wasn't up to anything and it was just a 1 in a million tragedy.
Classy post? Oh man, I guess I shouldn't post the firs tthing that came to my head when I heard about this. Buuuuuut, what the hell: I guess his heart was a bigger bust than his NFL career!