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."
Photo: Zack Heddinger, left, with his sister Lisa (WTAE-TV, Channel 4, Pittsburgh).
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'Shea's 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-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
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-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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First Mendenhall, now this. Very sad. Bores fans are classless.
Like I said, any reasonable person would not jump to the conclusion that all Chicagoans and all Bears fans would do that. Clearly the poster directly below this one is not reasonable!
And to the guy before that, so it's okay for a guy to be a complete asshole if his TEAM WON THE GAME? So if you were out at a bar during the Bears-Cardinals game and a Cardinals fan kicked you in the balls, it would be okay because his TEAM WON THE GAME? People like that just use the satisfaction of sports to replace the lack of satisfaction in their day-to-day lives. I like sports, but I don't feel like I have the right to take a dump on some guy's car if my team beats his, even if my TEAM WON THE GAME! So please just grow up and find something else in your life that is more satisfying than whose TEAM WON THE GAME.
Do you expect anything less from Chicagoans? Good luck getting this solved with the CPD working on it. They couldnt solve a "Clue" game correctly.
Zack "lemme getcha a drink" Heddinger is a true character. A 46 year old getting wasted with his childhood friends in different towns? What about wife/girlfriend/kids? His friends are all probably dumb single 40-50 years of age, who don't have families, and spend money getting wasted with men, like it wasn't enough drinking from his high school/college/beginning of career years. This steel er head, as someone above also said, is probably aggressively allergic to grain alcohol; and guess what? He drank exorbitant amounts of it. Smart huh? Give me a break, pay the consequences of your mistakes and don't blame it on some likely younger, sports fans from Chicago, who's TEAM WON THE GAME, drank and had an excellent time, and still have perfect vision!
"Yet another black mark on the city of Chicago."
"The actions of this thug puts a black mark on all Chicagoans and true Bear fans."
So one guy in Chicago, one Bears fan, acts like a sociopath and that looks bad for the entire city and all Bears fans? You cannot be serious! A guy is willing to poison someone else over something so trivial as football obviously has some troubling issues. Any reasonable person would not conclude that this happens all the time in Chicago or that most Bears fans would have no problem with potentially taking a human life in order to preserve the honor of their football team.
The person who did this was obviously troubled and disturbed because what sane and reasonable person would try something like that? If it wasn't over the Bears, it probably would have been the next person who cut him off on the highway, or the person who took the last carton of milk at the grocery store, or someone who looked at him funny walking down the street. Let's not feel guilty about who we are because of one sociopath who happens to live within the same city and/or root for the same football team as we do, even if in his twisted mind doing it in the name of that city or football team was totally acceptable. That does not reflect poorly on all of us, just him!
Hey, "The Truth"--I'm with you. This forum is FAR more civilized than the comments on the Breaking News version of the same story: http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/11/steelers-fan-says-he-was-poisoned-left-blind-in-chicago-bar.html Read THOSE comments if you're interested in seeing yet another Internet version of a "who can be the biggest jerk" contest...Clearly, the REAL sports fans are over here.
I highly doubt someone had antifreeze and pesticide in their back pocket and were able to slip it into the guys drink between it being made and from the bartenders hand to him. Sounds like the guy had an allergic reaction to the Grain Alcohol
It's sad that a guy drinks himself half to death then blames it on rival sports fans. The only poison he drank that night was alcohol.
I hope they get the guy who did this. Unreal. Over a Bears game!
The actions of this thug puts a black mark on all Chicagoans and true Bear fans. I hope the police are able to find & charge the offender and have him pay for the crime. Can the Tribune set up a fund to help defray some of this family's medical costs?
Hey, "The Truth"--I'm with you. This forum is FAR more civilized than the comments on the Breaking News version of the same story: http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/11/steelers-fan-says-he-was-poisoned-left-blind-in-chicago-bar.html Read THOSE comments if you're interested in seeing yet another Internet version of a "who can be the biggest jerk" contest...Clearly, the REAL sports fans are over here.
Come on now this is sports. The people who did belong in jail
soo wrong
Yet another black mark on the city of Chicago.
I am pleasantly surprised by the tone of the posts here. I thought a few idiot homers might chime in, but fortunantely they haven't.
If this is true, I hope they find the idiot(s) who did this, and as others have stated, charge him/her to the fullest. Make an example out of the thug(s).
Who the heck is walking around with antifreeze or pesticides at a bar? Seriously?
This is disgusting and as far as I'm concerned someone should be charged with attempted murder. Only a true coward and downright evil person would poison someone -- especially someone they don't even know, over football affiliations. What an unnecessary tragedy for that family.
Speaking as a Bears fan, I hope they find who did this and crucify them. There is no place in society for a loser of this magnitude.
If you were gonna poison somebody it should have been Jerry Angelo...... Just kiddin for all you serious people around here...
Anyway, as if the teams actions on the field wernt bad enough this year, now we have idiot fans to make us look even better. nice job morons, I hope you have fun in prision!
Sounds like the hand sanitizer & jello shot switcheroo
I'm ready to vomit after reading this. There are cameras there and potentially outside as well. They need to see about someone leaving then reentering from that group as well as I doubt anyone just had some poison on their person. Also need to see if a bartender or other employee had something to do with it as they would certainly have access to poisons while working. Also, I'm sure more than a couple people know about this. Come forward if you have tips... if decent people still even exist.
It doesn't get much worse than that. Despicable. Sports isn't supposed to be that important. It is entertainment. That's what you expect from Vikings fans.
Why anyone would deliberately poison someone because they were talking trash about a football team tells me they are idiots without any feelings for a fellow human being. Didn't your mom or dad teach you the value of a human life?