SARANAC LAKE, N.Y. — A Canadian rugby player has collapsed and died of an apparent heart attack at a tournament in the Adirondack Mountains.
Officials tell the Adirondack Daily Enterprise that Gerhart Vidt collapsed late Friday morning during a match at the 43rd annual Can-Am Rugby Tournament in Saranac Lake.
A group of players gave him CPR before paramedics arrived with a defibrillator and tried to revive Vidt before he was taken by ambulance to Adirondack Medical Center. He was pronounced dead in the hospital's emergency room, according to Franklin County Coroner Ron Keough.
Vidt, who was in his 50s, was a member of a team from Ottawa. Teammate Pat Byrne said Vidt had just walked off the field complaining that his teammates weren't playing hard enough and then dropped to the ground.
