Jesús de Miguel's Death: What Is Known About the Collision, the Heart and the Inquiry

CD Tenerife were playing FC Andorra in the Segunda División at the Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez López on Monday, Nov. 2. The match was 2-2 when De Miguel, who had come on as a substitute, chased a long ball in stoppage time. Owono left his penalty area to reach it and his knee hit De Miguel in the chest as both went up for it, according to Euronews, NBC News and Sky Sports.

The referee, Manuel Ángel Pérez Hernández, showed Owono a straight red card. His match report, quoted by Infobae and CNN Español, says Owono used "excessive force" while the ball was in dispute. De Miguel collapsed and the match was abandoned. Owono began to walk off, turned back, and joined De Miguel's teammates around him.

Team medical staff reached De Miguel about 20 seconds after he went down, and emergency workers brought a stretcher in under a minute, the Associated Press reported. He lay on the pitch for about five minutes before he was taken to an ambulance waiting just off the field.

What happened in those minutes is not established. The AP reported contradictory accounts of where his pulse returned, and Spanish media disagree on whether CPR started on the pitch or in the ambulance. Whether a defibrillator was used has not been confirmed. The club and LaLiga did not answer the AP's questions about the treatment.

Elvira González, president of the Spanish association of nurses, emergency medics and carers, told the AP that she could not say whether the care was right or wrong, but that CPR should start "at minute 1" and a defibrillator is crucial. Rayco García, Tenerife's largest shareholder, told Cadena SER that the medical team followed protocol and reached the pitch quickly. Those are two views, not findings.

De Miguel was taken to the Hospital Universitario Nuestra Señora de Candelaria in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and admitted to intensive care on Monday night. The club described his condition as stable despite its severity, then reported early on Tuesday that it had worsened neurologically. He died at 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 3. He leaves a wife and a one-year-old daughter, who were at the match.

The club described the cause as a cardiac arrest brought on by the blow. In a statement it said it was "broken with pain" and that "there are no words of comfort".

The Instituto de Medicina Legal y Ciencias Forenses in Santa Cruz de Tenerife has sent a preliminary report to the court. As reported by El Día and quoted by Telecinco, it gives "accidental chest trauma" as a cause "compatible with death". It is not definitive. Toxicology and other tests are still pending, according to Infobae. The court has not published the report: what we have is press reporting of it.

The preliminary report does not use the term commotio cordis. Cardiologists consulted by Infobae, Vozpópuli and Ara name it as the likely explanation, but this is expert opinion about a case they have not examined.

Commotio cordis is a sudden heart rhythm failure caused by a blow to the chest. If the blow lands in a very narrow window of the heartbeat, one cardiologist put it at about 20 milliseconds, it can set off a lethal arrhythmia in a heart that is otherwise structurally normal. It is rare, and is known mostly from baseball, hockey, karate and other sports with fast objects or strikes. Marta Sitges of the Hospital Clínic Barcelona told Ara that how quickly CPR and defibrillation start is the key predictor of survival. Ara cites the Cleveland Clinic for a survival rate of about 59% with immediate CPR and defibrillation.

The AP noted that Christian Eriksen at Euro 2021 and Damar Hamlin in the NFL in 2023 survived cardiac arrests after CPR and defibrillation. That is context, not a claim about this case.

The Policía Nacional has opened an inquiry into possible involuntary manslaughter (homicidio imprudente). The label is provisional. In Spain, any death that is not natural triggers a judicial inquiry automatically, the Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Canarias said. It is not an accusation.

The case is with Judge Eva Esther Juárez Fernández of Juzgado de Instrucción No. 2 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, who is waiting for the pending forensic tests. The chief prosecutor, José Luis Sánchez-Jáuregui, told EFE that criminal proceedings would be "very difficult" because the blow came during play, and that the sports discipline committee should be awaited. Local media say investigators are also looking at the medical response. The police have not said so, and declined to comment to the AP.

Owono has not been reported arrested, charged or questioned. In a statement released through FC Andorra on Nov. 4, he called these "the most difficult days of my life" and said he would face whatever comes with respect. The Spanish football federation's disciplinary committee postponed its ruling on his red card to study the referee's report and hear both clubs.

• A statement of apology, or an announcement that Owono was quitting football, posted in his name is false, FC Andorra told VerificaRTVE and Maldita.es reported.
• Racist abuse meant for the goalkeeper also hit Michel Owono, a different player at another club.
• "Owono faces manslaughter charges" is wrong. An inquiry exists. No charge does.

• Exactly when CPR and defibrillation began, who gave them, and where his pulse returned.
• The time from collapse to hospital arrival.
• Whether the final autopsy, with toxicology and scans, names commotio cordis or another mechanism.
• Whether the judge treats the death as a sporting accident or as possible negligence.
• The federation's ruling on Owono's red card.

The Spanish federation suspended all official matches for mourning, and UEFA held a minute's silence at its matches that week. Tributes came from LaLiga, Real Madrid, Barcelona, and UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin, who said: "We have searched for words and found only silence."

We will update this article when the final autopsy and the court's next step are reported, and add our video explaining the heart once it is published.