Garcia's collapse, during a game between his Salamanca side and Real Betis at the end of October, was the latest in a series of incidents that have shocked Spanish football fans.
Sevilla's Antonio Puerta died in hospital three days after collapsing during a La Liga match in 2007 at the age of 22 and his death sparked a new law that all first- and second-division clubs should keep defibrillators ready at their grounds.
Real Madrid's Ruben de la Red survived after collapsing during a King's Cup match in October 2008 and last month announced that he was heeding doctors' advice not to return to the game as a player, taking up a coaching job instead.
Espanyol´s Dani Jarque died suddenly in his hotel room while on a pre-season tour in 2009 and Sevilla´s Sergio Sanchez is trying to come back after surgery on a heart condition discovered by doctors in January.
The 31-year-old Garcia, however, will not return to the field after being told by doctors to give up playing.
Experts say the problem is not peculiar to Spain but the country's players' union (AFE) wants the rule on keeping defibrillators and a doctor standing by extended to lower-division clubs.
"They don´t think there are more cases in Spain, it is just the high-profile nature of the league, but it is true there seem to have been a number of cases in quick succession," Jesus Diaz Peramos, vice-president of the AFE, told Reuters.
"We are also talking about the third and fourth tiers of football. These cases don´t grab the headlines in the same way but there have been seven or eight (collapses) this year."
SIMILAR PROBLEMS
Part of the proceeds of world champions Spain´s next international friendly on March 9 will be spent on defibrillators and training courses.
The AFE has been comparing notes with players' unions in other countries.
"We all need to look for solutions together," Diaz Peramos said. "It´s difficult because the legislation is different in every country but football generates a lot of income so it isn´t much to ask that some of this money can be channelled towards this issue. It would be money well spent."
Araceli Boraita, a cardiologist and member of the government-run Sports Council (CSD), said other countries had similar problems.
"There aren´t more cases in Spain than in other countries," Boraita told Reuters in a telephone interview.
"It´s just that recently there have been more cases with a high media profile. They all end up in the news but it isn´t the case that there are more of them here than in other European countries or in the rest of the world.
"The percentages are almost identical. There are around 20 per year which is very few out of a population of 48 million. All the studies made so far show that there is around one case per 2-300,000 young sportspeople under the age of 35.
"The cases of Puerta, Jarque, Garcia and De La Red all had different pathologies," Boraita added.
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