Sumo wrestler infected with coronavirus dies at 28

Overweight is not good for your health.

The lower-ranked rikishi sleep together in a single tatami room, so I would imagine the virus spreads even easier than in a school or military barracks. The big guys will need to be extra careful.

Wow, 28! But all extra weigh comes with additional risk, no matter if there is a lot of muscle under the fat.

Also, how much sunshine do the sumotori get? Vitamin D deficiency appears to be a big factor too.

Wow, 28! But all extra weigh comes with additional risk, no matter if there is a lot of muscle under the fat.

so do smokers, coronavirus like the flu attack the lungs, people with diminished lung capacity tend to suffer more when contracting these diseases

glad all the foreign medical doctors in Japan are chiming in with comments

Overweight is not good for your health.

You're describing 40% of the US population, you realize.

His real name was Kiyotaka Omori from Yamanashi. He joined sumo at aged 15 and has struggled in the bottom three divisions for 13 years. Very short by Sumo standards at just 166cm, and unlikely to find fame as a wrestler, he found a niche of being one of the duo who perform comedy sumo routines during sumo jungyo ( seasonal tours).

R.I.P Kiyotaka.

Yes he was obese by any metric at 112kg and 166cm (BMI 40) being that big sadly was his living. Coronavirus does as we now know affects overweight people more.

Very sad news

Only 28 years old...he still had a lot of life to look forward to. Very sad.

Overweight is not good for your health.

Neither is -

He was then turned away by several hospitals before finally being admitted to a Tokyo hospital on the evening of April 8 after he started coughing up blood.........

and

An initial coronavirus test there came back negative but he then tested positive on April 10 after being transferred to another hospital, where he was placed in intensive care............

This is appalling, both the Tokyo and Japan governments should be ashamed of this situation.

Sorry to hear this,

I wish there was more information, did he have any underlying conditions?

Tragic.

RIP.

He suffered diabetes. Pre-existing, chronic diseases alongside the infection are responsible for the virus-led deaths.

コロナ感染で死去の勝武士「糖尿病を患っていた」横野レイコ氏が明かす

https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20200513-00000069-dal-spo

What's really so puzzling and simultaneously scary about COVID19 is that there are some people 80-100 who have contracted and recovered, while there are plenty of 20-50 who have ended up in ICU or passed away. This thing is no average "flu" by any means. RIP to the young Rikishi,

I am living today. It may be only a matter of luck. I do not know what happens to me tomorrow.

He was then turned away by several hospitals ...

Nikkei Sports reports that he was turned away from multiple hospitals from April 4 to 6 before phoning an ambulance on April 8.

Come on, Japan. We can do better.

Ulysses..... Underlining conditions?

Well, diabetes and a BMI of 40+ So only the two very worst conditions for Corvid-19.

I deliberately left out being over 70 years old because those with a 40+ BMI don’t make it that far!

Turned away for more than two days while having strong symptoms. This is just criminal. I hope the sumo association sues the hospitals which refused giving him treatment.

Doctors are bound by oath to "do no harm".

OssanAmerica:

there are some people 80-100 who have contracted and recovered, while there are plenty of 20-50 who have ended up in ICU or passed away

You do realize that there simply ARE a lot more people in the 20-50 range than 80-100. Or did you not?

R.I.P young soldier.

Despite numerous cases of young people some even without underlying diseases losing their lives to this virus there are still some here that still underplay the deathliness of the novel corona virus.

Too sad. Beyond words.

Disgraceful behaviour from Japan's healthcare system.

WilliBToday  06:48 pm JST

OssanAmerica:

there are some people 80-100 who have contracted and recovered, while there are plenty of 20-50 who have ended up in ICU or passed away

You do realize that there simply ARE a lot more people in the 20-50 range than 80-100. Or did you not?

You miss my point entirely. With past Flu outbreaks one could pretty much consider people 20-50 were bascally safe, with the young and elderly at risk.

OssanAmerica:

You miss my point entirely. With past Flu outbreaks one could pretty much consider people 20-50 were bascally safe, with the young and elderly at risk.

Same with this one. There is very little risk for the young age group -- I just pointed out why your comment about "plenty" of young people being affected was misleading.

Call me old-fashioned, but upon hearing of some’s passing, considering the grief of the family, isn’t something like, “I’m sorry to hear the sad news” a more traditional comment?

Interesting cultural point. Thousands die everyday, all of them tragic on one way or another. However, a load of "RIP" posts do become a bit tiresome, especially in relation to someone we don't know.

Its shameful that the health care system and the sumo association couldn't get him the help he needed. I mean, if he were Hakuho, you can bet that he'd have gotten the best quality care available. The fact that some 28 year old professional athlete needed to cough up blood for an ICU bed is pathetic. All day I hear and see ambulances driving back and forth from the hospital to attend to some senior thats collapsed. Meanwhile, this young man is rejected. Sad.

All sumo wrestlers have underlying health conditions and are very vulnerable to succumb to covid19 once infected. And those lower ranking wrestlers live a communal life, so the disease can spread easily amongst them. May his soul rest in peace, young man.

OssanAmericaMay 13  08:31 pm JST

You miss my point entirely. With past Flu outbreaks one could pretty much consider people 20-50 were bascally safe, with the young and elderly at risk.

The novel coronavirus isn't the flu.

Bing referred by hospitals is what killed him, Not coronavirus.

@Kumagaijin

The fact that some 28 year old professional athlete needed to cough up blood for an ICU bed is pathetic.

This is the reality that all Japanese citizens and residents face with the coronavirus.

The Abe administration wants to keep the coronavirus cases low as much as possible by making seeking help as difficult as possible, so that most coronavirus patients just give up and toughen it out at home.

Only when patients are near death are they allowed to be admitted into hospital, tested positive, and be added to the national coronavirus tally.

some of the commentors are so bad or acting bad, when someone dies, can you for once be respectable? do you think it's funny, when one of your family members dies, can someone comment on her/his size?

when a young person dies of virus, don't blame the victim, blame your lovely, wonderful government/PM Abe for not doing an enough,

does this make sense? can't get through the phone line? is it 1950's now, how about online registration?

Turned away from several hospitals, that's brutal.

"It must have been so very painful to fight the disease for over a month but, like a sumo wrestler, he persevered and endured, fighting to the very end," Hakkaku said.'

Nothing like milking an athlete's death for the sport, eh? Anyway, making light of the man's death and saying, "Like unique sumo, he persevered and fought until the end! No one else does that! It is unique to only Japanese sumooooooh!" is disgusting, when the man was in fact suffering greatly, and DYING. And how did the JSA assist him? Was it by only cancelling the tournament last week after trying to keep it on as long as possible, pushing the spread further? Did they use their connections to get him seen earlier? Nope. The kid was rejected by hospitals and eventually died as a result, and now they are milking his death.

What should be said is that the man's passing is a sad and sorry state, but eventually, like sumo is doing, he has simply lost the battle and passed on, because sumo clearly deserves to go the way of the dinosaur.

Zichi: "Hospitals receiving public funds should not be able to refuse someone even if they can't treat the person they should transfer to another hospital which can."

That's something we agree on. In fact, the hospitals that rejected him should have all public funding cut for five years, and with the threat of losing their licenses to operate if they do it again, and with the warning to other hospitals the same will happen to them if they reject patients. And for anyone thinking Japanese hospitals are only doing this because they are being overrun: a) compared to other countries, if you believe the government, Japan is "ganbatteiru" and doesn't have much illness, (b) they have had ages to prepare, (c) they do this all the time anyway, and have done so long before Corona, for which I can give you a dozen links to pregnant women being rejected and dying, or 'just' having miscarriages after being rejected a dozen or so times, a couple of cases within a WEEK of hospitals saying they would take action to prevent it from happening again.