Michael Steele’s Words: War By Other Means
July 2, 2010Ricky Steamboat Thoughts (Part 2, Chris Benoit’s Father Comments)
July 3, 2010
According to Dave Meltzer at the Wrestling Observer website, Ricky Steamboat’s angiogram has convinced his doctor that the bleeding in his brain was caused by a capillary burst. Meltzer adds, “Capillary bursts most frequently come from blunt force.”
Meltzer says Steamboat is stable and fully responsive in a Tampa hospital, where he is expected to remain another five days: “The brain bleed is considered the serious issue, as capillary bursts usually heal themselves up.”
The original diagnosis of a brain aneurysm is now, at best, ambiguous. The website brainaneurysm.com has the following information:
A brain aneurysm, also called a cerebral or intracranial aneurysm, is an abnormal bulging outward of one of the arteries in the brain….
Brain aneurysms are often discovered when they rupture, causing bleeding into the brain or the space closely surrounding the brain called the subarachnoid space, causing a subarachnoid hemorrhage. Subarachnoid hemorrhage from a ruptured brain aneurysm can lead to a hemorrhagic stroke, brain damage and death.
According to this site, one in 15 people in the U.S. will develop the condition in their lifetimes. For pro wrestlers, the rate is obviously a lot higher. The death appendix of my book Wrestling Babylon lists several examples, and I can think of at least two obscure independent wrestlers in the last year who died suddenly and young from aneurysms.
NEXT: Comments of Mike Benoit, Chris’s father.
Irv Muchnick