A former Olympic and professional runner from Ethiopia who was due to give birth in three weeks collapsed at a Chinese restaurant food poisoning and died ? Her baby is alive.
Meskerem Legesse, 26, who lived in Westport, was with her 2-year-old son when she collapsed at a Chinese restaurant in Hamden on Monday. She was transported to a hospital, where she died and the baby was saved.
The cause of death suspected of food poising family was waiting for the autopsy, but ut it seems that her body will be send to Ethiopia precipitately with out the right autopsy in order to find her reason of death.
Legesse ran in the 1,500-meter competition at the Athens Olympics in 2004. She finished 12th in a first-round heat with a time of 4:18:03 and didn’t advance to the medal race. She moved on to a professional running career in the U.S., competing in events including the Boston Indoor Games, Fifth Avenue Mile in Manhattan and the Millrose Games in New York. She apparently hadn’t raced within the past few years.
Legesse’s death was first reported by Hartford-area CBS affiliate WFSB-TV, which obtained surveillance video from the restaurant showing Legesse entering with her son.
Hamden firefighters and paramedics with American Medical Response were called to the restaurant about 2 p.m. Monday and performed CPR on a pregnant woman who collapsed, according to fire and police officials who did not release the woman’s name.
Doctors at Yale-New Haven Hospital were able to save the baby because of the CPR efforts both in the restaurant and in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, Hamden fire chief David Berardesca said.
A spokeswoman for the state medical examiner’s office said the agency declined to perform an autopsy with a pretext of her past health problems. She declined to elaborate. She has had a strong heart and finished two Olympic marathon with not problem, thus the prtext of her sickness has no ground.
A Yale-New Haven Hospital spokesman on Wednesday said he had no information about Legesse being brought there Monday.