Dominican basketball player who previously blamed COVID vaccine for rare heart condition dies of heart attack

Professional Dominican basketball player Óscar Cabrera Adames died this week after an apparent heart attack while he was possibly undergoing a stress test.

According to a social media post from Dominican sports commentator Héctor Gómez, the 28-year-old’s stress test was being performed at a health center in Santo Domingo.

Cabrera Adames is believed to have suffered from myocarditis. The disease can weaken the heart and its electrical system, which decreases the heart’s ability to pump blood, according to the American Heart Association.

Following his death, social media posts surfaced in which Cabrera Adames suggested he developed the rare heart disease after he received two doses of a COVID vaccine. 

“I got a damn Myocarditis from taking a f—ing vaccine. (I got 2 doses of Pfizer) And I knew it! Many people warned me,” Cabrera Adames wrote on social media.

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He also said the vaccine was a work requirement.

“But guess what? It was compulsory or I couldn’t work. I am an international professional athlete and I am playing in Spain. I have no health problem, nothing, not hereditary, no asthma, NOTHING! I suddenly collapsed to the ground in the middle of a match and almost died. I’m still recovering and I’ve had 11 different cardiology tests done and guess? They find nothing.”

3D illustration concept of the human circulatory system and heart anatomy (iStock)

Cabrera Adames’s collapse happened during a 2021 Spanish Amateur Basketball League game. He fainted during the game and was later transported to a hospital on a stretcher.

According to the Mayo Clinic, a stress test is designed to show how the heart functions during physical activity. Medical personnel usually attach electrodes to the patient’s chest during the test. A machine then records the electrical activity of the heart.

It remains unclear if the stress test was the direct cause of Cabrera Adames’ heart attack. 

Cabrera Adames was the nephew of Hugo Cabrera, a Dominican Sports Hall of Famer.

Cabrera Adames played basketball at Daytona State College in Florida. In 2016, he was one of 12 men arrested by St. Johns County Sheriff’s deputies for allegedly attempting to have sex with a minor.

The undercover sting was formed to catch individuals who intended to use the internet as a tool to find children to sexually exploit, law enforcement said at the time.