2022 World Cup: Grant Wahl’s wife reveals cause of journalist’s death in Qatar

Grant Wahl, Dr. Celine Gounder, has said her husband died of an aneurysm in his heart while covering a World Cup match.

Gounder said on Wednesday, that the autopsy was conducted by the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office.

“Grant died from the rupture of a slowly growing, undetected ascending aortic aneurysm with hemopericardium,” she wrote on her husband’s Substack newsletter; hemopericardium refers to blood in the sac that surrounds the heart.

“The chest pressure he experienced shortly before his death may have represented the initial symptoms. No amount of CPR or shocks would have saved him. His death was unrelated to COVID. His death was unrelated to vaccination status. There was nothing nefarious about his death.”

Wahl, who was 49, was stricken in the media tribune of Lusail Iconic Stadium in Qatar early Saturday during extra time in Argentina’s quarterfinal match against the Netherlands.

Emergency workers immediately attended to him and treated him for 20 to 30 minutes before taking him away on a stretcher, reporters in his vicinity said.

His body was transported to New York.

“This transition was handled with the utmost care and sensitivity,” Gounder wrote. “This was an international matter that required coordination from multiple agencies domestically and internationally, and there was full cooperation from everyone involved. Our sincere gratitude to everyone involved in repatriating Grant, in particular the White House, the U.S. Department of State, FIFA, U.S. Soccer and American Airlines.”