Former Lotte Giants catcher dies (after 10 years in a coma after collapsing during a game)

A former catcher who fell into a vegetative state in the prime of his career was pronounced dead early yesterday after spending the past decade in a persistent vegetative state. Former Lotte Giants catcher Lim Soo-hyuk, 40, was pronounced dead at the Kangdong Sacred Heart Hospital in eastern Seoul early yesterday.

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Lim was drafted in 1994 and listed at 185 centimeters (6 feet 1 inch) and 90 kilograms (198 pounds), he was tabbed early on as a promising ball player with a lot of potential. However, soon after the start of his seventh season, Lim suddenly collapsed at the second base during an April, 18 2000 game against the LG Twins at the Jamsil Stadium in southern Seoul. According to the medical reports, Lim collapsed due to a heart arrhythmia or irregular heartbeat and failed to receive cardiopulmonary resuscitation on time. Although an emergency medical service vehicle arrived and transported Lim to a hospital, the brain damage he received from the incident was said to have resulted largely from the lack of first aid soon after Lim collapsed at the stadium.

Poor first aid and the ensuing brain damage resulting from lack of oxygen to the brain meant there wasn’t much the doctors at the hospital could do to help Lim once he was brought to the hospital. The former baseball player went onto spend the next decade in a vegetative state.

Sad story out of Korea.