Elena Duta Charged with Manslaughter in Death of Patrick Ekeng

Emergency doctor Elena Duta has been charged with manslaughter by Romanian officials in the death of former Cameroon and Dinamo Bucharest midfielder Patrick Ekeng, according to the BBC.

Ekeng collapsed during a league match for Romania's Dinamo Bucharest in May and ultimately died of heart failure. The Romanian public prosecutor has maintained that Duta did nothing to resuscitate the player in the ambulance ride between the stadium and the hospital.

While an autopsy did show that Ekeng had been suffering from several heart problems at the time, the prosecutor did not allow that as an excuse, noting: "Even if among Ekeng's causes of death were the cardiac problems he suffered from, by her unjustified inaction, Duta removed any chance of survival. She did not evaluate the footballer's state of health and made no attempt at resuscitation."

Per the BBC's report, the prosecutor's office revealed statistics suggesting that "95 per cent of people with similar heart problems survive cardiac arrest if defibrillation is administered within 60 seconds" and that the chances of survival diminish by 5.5 per cent for every minute that defibrillation isn't administered.

Ekeng was pronounced dead in the hospital two hours after he collapsed on the pitch.

After Ekeng's death, FIFA's chief medical officer, Jiri Dvorak, called for more precautionary measures at football stadiums.

"At professional football matches, there should be an automatic external defibrillator (AED) on the sidelines and staff adequately trained to use it," he told Piers Edwards of BBC Sport in May. "I will pass this on to the [FIFA] Council for a strategic decision so that we can implement it within our member associations."

Ekeng made two appearances for the Cameroon national team, both at the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations. He appeared professionally for Le Mans (France), Rodez (France), Lausanne-Sport (Switzerland), Cordoba (Spain) and Dinamo Bucharest.