Anders & Morten Boesen: Former shuttlers and brothers who helped revive Eriksen

Anders Boesen was known to be an aggressive young shuttler in the early Noughties who shared some feisty face-offs with the great Indonesian Taufik Hidayat. On Saturday, he was at hand as the stadium doctor, for older brother Morten Boesen – also the Denmark football team’s chief physician – when Christian Eriksen collapsed at the Parken Stadium after a cardiac arrest.

The shuttlers-turned-doctors Boesen brothers helped restart Eriksen’s heart, after 13 minutes of CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) and one go of the defillibrator.

Watching his home team play their opener against Finland, India’s doubles coach Mathias Boe went through a tumult of emotions, as he watched the familiar well-built figure of Morten take charge behind the protective circle the team formed. Boe had played for 6-7 years along with the Boesens as teammates at international and club level.

“When Eriksen went down, I immediately knew this wasn’t looking good. I’ve met him a few times since we come from the same hometown. Not knowing what might’ve happened was super frightening. But I was amazed to see how the medical staff reacted quickly. And obviously later, I was proud as a badminton player that Morten had given him CPR and they’d helped revive him on the field,” Boe, a 2012 Olympic silver medallist, says.

Denmark club doctor Morten Boesen explains what happened on the pitch with Christian Eriksen. pic.twitter.com/RcLO9bmIp4

— Squawka News (@SquawkaNews) June 14, 2021

Shuttlers-cum-doctors

While Danish badminton has a long legacy of champs who studied medicine – mostly orthopaedic surgeons in line with their sport – the Boesens were adept at administering CPR and keeping their composure. “Twenty years ago, it was pretty common for all of us to finish degrees alongside badminton and take mandatory lectures in between training sessions. (Former world champion) Peter Rasmussen, Niels Christian Kaldau and both Morten and Anders studied medicine, while Anders also reached World No. 3 in singles,” Boe explains.

The Boesen brothers – there’s also a third doctor sibling Lars in the family – played badminton the hard Danish way.

“Morten was a little older while I was still coming up. He played mainly singles but trained very strongly and has remained fit and muscular. Anders loved physical hard sessions. Even after retiring, when he was studying surgery, he would turn up for an intense two-hour morning session at 5 am. As a player, he always wanted to run the ball hard and stayed in extremely good shape by running,” Boe recalls.

Anders was Pullela Gopichand’s opponent in the quarters when the Indian won the 2001 All England. And while Gopichand got past him without much fuss, Anders had created a stir in the earlier round beating the fancied Indonesian, Hidayat. An earlier Thomas Cup semifinal between the two had been a classic. He’d retire around 2004 after realising that he’d maxed out as Denmark No. 3 or 4 in singles at most, and pursue higher medicine and surgery.

As a player, Anders carried a hell-raising intensity to the court. “He was as crazy and passionate as I was when on court,” Boe says. “He played with a lot of heart and showed aggression. But what he’s remembered for is his fighting spirit and how hard he worked. Obviously, it’s not the temperament he carried into his work as a doctor. But the brothers were fighters as players, and I’m glad they were there for Christian.”

While Morten rose through the ranks at Copenhagen FC, the top club in the capital, and then moved to the national side in 2018, Anders was called on by UEFA to be the stadium doctor.

Thorough professional

Morten would reveal to the press about the cardiac arrest and stick to the facts. “We don’t know how close it was,” he would explain, soon after Eriksen was safely deposited to a hospital four minutes away in what was clockwork resuscitation.

Fearing that he was “gone” when they arrived at the scene, the medics had gone about calmly reviving the 29-year-old. With a global audience tuned in and 16,000 spectators focused on the medical staff, this heart muscle emergency was an altogether different challenge for the brothers.

Yet, Denmark is a country that seems prepared for these emergencies. “When you go for a driver’s licence, you need to do a strict CPR course, so all above 18 know this. Maybe older generation not so much. Also, there are heart-starters at different locations across town and almost everyone has a Heart Helper App. So help is round the corner as soon as an alarm is raised,” Boe explains.

The recently-retired 40-year-old shuttler, now India coach, was looking forward to catching the action on TV. “Look, the Euros and World Cup are the biggest sports events for Denmark. It’s like cricket in India. The coronavirus restrictions were just lifted, and even the sun was shining. People were out there to have a blast and everyone was smiling. And then this happened and shocked everyone. The dread before the relief was too much,” he says.

Personal trauma

Mathias Boe is a silver medallist at the 2012 London Olympics. (File)

Sitting in Hyderabad where he is plotting the progress of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty for the Tokyo Olympics, Boe though found a painful memory flash back when he watched Eriksen. Playing the 2016 European Men’s Team Championship at Kazan, Boe’s partner, fellow former World No. 1, Carsten Mogensen collapsed similarly in front of him, suffering an intracranial aneurysm in a hotel room.

“My mind went back to the day Carsten collapsed. He fell over and later was told there was a blood clot. I knew exactly what the players were going through watching a friend go down. There was no doctor, just a hotel reception with very broken English. It was pure adrenaline I ran around on finding the team physio and doctor and getting an ambulance,” Boe recalls the fateful day.

“It was only when Carsten was in good hands that I clearly remember lying on the bed and my brain spinning, the ceiling turning and feeling mentally exhausted. Just how the football team was convinced to go back on the pitch and play the same evening, I don’t know. It was humanly unfair. Right now, I’m only thankful that medical staff and his teammates could revive Christian. I’m proud of what my former badminton mates did there to save him. I hope he gets OK,” he prays.

“Rest is just sport.”