My husband died on the 28 June 2007. He was a healthy, fit 29 year old man.
He had been training all year for the London to Brighton bike ride. He had been cycling 30 miles every weekend and there had never been a problem.
He left my house on the Saturday night before the bike ride, to stay with a friend who lived in London (1 mile away from the start line). He ate his dinner and had a fairly early night, he got up in the morning, had his breakfast and left around 5.30am. He rode the 1 mile to the start line.
The next think I knew was when the police knocked on my door at around 7am and asked to come in. I asked if I needed to sit down and was told “yes”.
I sat down with my 2 year old son on my lap and was told that there had been an “incident” and I needed to contact St George’s Hospital in Tooting, London.
It turns out that at the start line of the race, it was witnessed that my husband slumped on his bike and hit the ground. As it was at the start line there were paramedics around, so they got to him quite quickly. It wasn’t until they turned him over that they realised that his heart had stopped and he wasn’t breathing. The paramedics started resuscitation and had to shock him to get the heart started again.
However, this took about 20 minutes so as you can imagine all sorts of complications followed. I wont go into all the gory details as they are very upsetting.
We have been told by the pathologist who did the autopsy that they can find NO REASON as to why his heart would have stopped. The hospital informed us of something called “The Young Man’s Cot Death”. I have now had to sign my husband’s heart over to medical research and an Inquest has been opened to assess what the cause of death was. I’m not holding my breath for an answer!!!!!
I don’t understand how this could have happened, my husband Chris Gorman was only 29 and fit and healthy. He smoked a while ago but we had both quit on the arrival of our son. He was not a heavy drinker and was generally in good health.
I have been told that this could have happened at any time and I could easily have woken up to find him dead next to me in the bed.
I came across this site whilst trying to do some research on “The Young Man’s Cot Death”. I don’t understand any of what has happened and it is making the grieving process twice as hard as it already is.
Many friends and family are all wanting answers, as Chris was an enthusiastic, artistic, generous, caring, loving, happy man who loved his family above anything else in the world.
How can this happen to a good man, when there are people out there wasting their lives – it just doesn’t make any sense.
I would like more information on this subject as I’m beginning to see that this is happening to young men FAR TOO OFTEN. More people need to be aware of this and maybe more research can be done to help identify what causes this and how it can be stopped!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Louise Gorman
