November 17th, 2009
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A Pittsburgh Steelers fan says he was left blind and is living with brain damage after he was apparently poisoned at a Chicago bar following a game in September.
The Steelers had lost to the Bears at Soldier Field, and some trash-talking was going on between Zack Heddinger’s group of Pittsburgh fans and a group of Bears fans. Afterward, Heddinger, 46, was offered a drink by one of the Chicago fans, a gesture he thought was a peace offering, his older sister Linda Heddinger said this morning in an interview.
It still isn’t clear what substance was in the drink, but doctors believe, based on the effects, that it was grain alcohol, antifreeze or some kind of pesticide, Linda Heddinger said.
What is clear, she said, is that her brother is having memory difficulties and is nearly blind.
“It seems like a bad connection you have with television,” Linda Heddinger said. “He has glimpses, but just because he can see you today doesn’t mean he will see you tomorrow.”
Based on conversations with those with Heddinger, he and his family
have “narrowed down” the instances in which he could have been poisoned
to the incident at Kitty O’Sheas after they left the Sept. 20 game, his
sister said.
Linda Heddinger said the game was part of an
annual trip her brother takes with childhood friends to see sporting
events in various cities.
According to a Chicago police
report, at around 6 p.m. Heddinger, his sister Lisa and their friends
were at the bar at 720 S. Michigan Ave. There was an “altercation
between Bears and Pittsburgh fans,” said Chicago Police Officer Laura
Kubiak.
“My brother, trying to be a peacemaker, drank it,” Linda Heddinger said. “No one else did.”
The
police report also mentions Heddinger took the drink and notes his
group left the bar a short time later. At about 11 p.m. a call was made
from their hotel for an ambulance.
Linda Heddinger said another
sister received a call at about 2:30 a.m. from Rush University Medical
Center that their brother’s heart had stopped and he wasn’t expected to
survive. Doctors told the family, who later traveled to Chicago to be
with Heddinger, that his reaction was much more severe than if he had
just been drinking alcohol.
By Thursday, Heddinger was still hospitalized; he was getting headaches and starting to lose his vision, his sister said.
Heddinger later returned to the Pittsburgh area, where he is staying with one of his sisters and his account was first reported by WTAE-TV Ch. 4.
The
last two months have been “very, very difficult,” Linda Heddinger said,
as the family has tried various treatments for their brother’s ailments
and made arrangements for his rehabilitation.Heddinger is the 7th of nine siblings, most of whom live in the Pittsburgh area.
A regional sales manager for a jewelry company, Zack Heddinger
hasn’t been working and he doesn’t have health insurance, his sister
said. “We’re emotionally drained, financially drained,” she said.”I don’t understand the mentality where you would do this to someone.”
Police said Belmont Area detectives are still investigating the incident.
– Andrew L. Wang
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