Autopsy results show a rare heart condition contributed to a Dartmouth College swimmer's accidental death at a Florida pool.
Tate Ramsden of Nashville, Tennessee, died Dec. 26. A Sarasota County Sheriff's Office report said the 21-year-old was swimming laps underwater when he went into distress.
An autopsy report released Friday by Dr. Russell Vega, chief medical examiner for Manatee, Desoto and Sarasota counties, listed drowning as the cause of death. A contributing cause of death was arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy, a rare disease of the heart muscle.
The condition is inherited and causes abnormal heart rhythms. According to the autopsy report, Ramsden may have been in the early stages of the progressive disease.
Ramsden would have graduated in 2017. Dartmouth spokeswoman Diana Lawrence said the college joins Ramsden's family in mourning "such a gifted and special young man."
