Grant Wahl‘s body arrived in the United States a few days after he shockingly died, according to official Qatari reports.
Ned Price who is a spokesperson for the Department of State informed the press about the body’s transportation and said that they have been in constant communication with the family.
Later, the State Department informed that Whal’s body arrived to New York’s JFK airport in the morning with an official from the embassy, meanwhile the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken also shared his condolences via Twitter
Wahl’s remains arrived to JFK airport on Monday morning
“I so appreciated Grant Wahl, whose writing captured not only the essence of the beautiful game but also the world around it,” Blinken continued “I send my deepest condolences to his family, and thank our Embassy team and Qatari partners who worked together so effectively to fulfill their wishes.”
As we have covered when the news broke, Grant Wahl was covering the match between Argentina and Netherlands on Friday when he suddenly collapsed.
EMTs took too much time to transfer him to a hospital
Emergency responders were with him at the stadium for about 30 minutes before transferring him to the nearest hospital a situation that
As we previously reported, 49-year-old Wahl died after collapsing in the press box while attending Argentina vs. the Netherlands match on Friday.
Medical responders treated Wahl at the stadium for nearly 30 minutes before rushing him to a nearby hospital.
There was no defibrillator available at the stadium
Journalist Josh Glancy who was at the press box had a direct comment on what happened as he believes that the medical staff could have prepared better for a possible medical emergency.
“Why wasn’t there a defibrillator? That was the question we kept asking each other, as the medics pumped and pumped to no avail,”
Glancy wrote “At this billion-dollar state-of-the-art stadium, which has a VIP suite so lavish it includes a bedroom, which will host the World Cup final, why was there no defibrillator to hand? Many minutes passed, and we kept expecting it to come. But it never did.”
An autopsy is yet to be performed on US Soil
Grant Wahl had stated that during the week prior to his passing he had a bad case of bronchitis, but there has not been an official statement from US authorities regarding his cause of death.