When journalist Grant Wahl collapsed Friday at Lusail Iconic Stadium in Doha, a defibrillator was not nearby, according to those another journalist who witnessed his death.
Josh Glancy, a special correspondent for The Sunday Times, shared a recounting of the events that led to the longtime sports reporter’s death Friday during the World Cup in Qatar, at a match between Argentina and Netherlands. His cause of death remains unknown, although his brother Eric Wahl has said he suspects it was the result of foul play. Grant himself said earlier in the week that he had come down with “a case of bronchitis.”
“Why wasn’t there a defibrillator? That was the question we kept asking each other, as the medics pumped and pumped to no avail,” Glancy wrote, noting that Wahl had been receiving CPR for several minutes after an unexpected medical issue. “At this billion-dollar state-of-the-art stadium, which has a VIP suite so lavish it includes a bedroom, which will host the World Cup final, why was there no defibrillator to hand? Many minutes passed, and we kept expecting it to come. But it never did.”
As Glancy recalled in his piece, “a panicked voice rang out from the press box” asking for a medic for Wahl, 48, who was “clearly suffering some form of attack or seizure” on Friday during the match. A journalist with first aid training and two medics rushed to his aid, Glancy wrote, while medics “kept pumping.”
A stretcher then came to take Wahl away, minutes after he was “tweeting excitedly about the game,” the article reads.
“On the pitch, the penalty shoot-out concluded. Argentina won. Holland lost. Who cared,” Glancy wrote. “The gloating of the Argentine victors seemed unbearably pathetic. The distress of the defeated Dutch, stricken in the center circle, somehow trivial and banal in the face of a widow about to receive the worst phone call imaginable. The magic spell of football had been broken. The only important thing was that a good man had inexplicably lost his life.”
A day before his death, Wahl discussed coming down with bronchitis on a Thursday episode of his Fútbol with Grant Wahl podcast, as ESPN reports. While Wahl said at the time he was doing “slightly better,” he claimed he was not at “100 percent” as he prepared to attend the Friday match. “My body told me, even after the U.S. went out, ‘Dude, you are not sleeping enough,’ and it rebelled on me. So I’ve had a case of bronchitis this week,” he said. “I’ve been to the medical clinic at the media center twice now, including today. I’m feeling better today, I basically canceled everything on this Thursday, that I had, and napped.”
Similarly, on his Substack, Wahl explained that his body “finally broke down on me,” and again detailed the sickness. He described himself as having “three weeks of little sleep, high stress and lots of work.”
“What had been a cold over the last 10 days turned into something more severe on the night of the USA-Netherlands game, and I could feel my upper chest take on a new level of pressure and discomfort,” he wrote. “I didn’t have Covid (I test regularly here), but I went into the medical clinic at the main media center today, and they said I probably have bronchitis. They gave me a course of antibiotics and some heavy-duty cough syrup, and I’m already feeling a bit better just a few hours later. But still: No bueno.”
On Friday, Dr. Céline Gounder, Wahl’s wife of 21 years, shared a statement on Twitter about the “complete shock” she felt hearing the news of his death.
“I am so thankful for the support of my husband @GrantWahl’s soccer family & of so many friends who’ve reached out tonight,” Gounder wrote on Twitter. “I’m in complete shock.”
