An air ambulance helicopter landed on
the outfield and doctors performed CPR on the field after Hughes was
stretchered from the pitch and shrouded by screens. He was taken to St
Vincent’s Hospital in Darlinghurst - and
sadly, Phil Hughes, only 25 is dead ! Players, coaches and other friends had
been in and out of St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney throughout Wednesday and
Thursday, visiting Hughes and supporting his family, and each other. The word tragedy
gets used far too often in sport but this freak accident is now a real-life
tragedy. Irrespective of his talent, or
chances to stage a comeback it is cruel fate befalling on a person just shy of
his 26th birthday. Hughes played 26
Tests for Australia and scored three centuries, and he appeared a strong chance
to win a recall for next week's first Test against India at the Gabba, with
Clarke expected to be ruled out due to injury.
Doctors who treated
Phillip Hughes say there had only been 100 cases of vertebral artery
dissection. St Vincent's Hospital Head of Trauma Tony Grabs said he had never
encountered the condition before. The
ball hit Hughes on the side of his neck at Sydney Cricket Ground on Tuesday and
compressed his verbal artery which carries blood to the brain. It caused the
artery to split and led to a 'massive bleed' in the brain, which Dr Brukner
said was 'frequently fatal'. Doctors told reporters on Thursday only a hundred
cases of vertebral artery dissection had ever been reported. They stated that Hughes was resuscitated with
the help of Cricket NSW doctor John Orchid and Newcastle intensive care
specialist Tim Stanley. 'They all did an
excellent job of keeping Phillip alive and he was able to transported by
ambulance to hospital in reasonable condition,' Dr Brukner said. If there were
to be lot of blood around the brain, the person will become unconscious and it
was early recognised to make an intervention into the brain to help get the
pressure down. An extensive surgery to remove part of the skull around his
brain to allow the brain to expand so it wasn't compressed was conducted and it
took about an hour and 20 minutes – yet he could not be saved !
The pitches down under offer a lot
for pacers – they are hard and bouncy and Aussies are adept in playing fast
bowling. Phil fell victim to a delivery that did not quite
have the pace he had anticipated. He swung, missed, and collapsed in a heap,
never to rise.
## As
an immediate reaction, fierce debate erupted over how to make cricket safer.
Some called for a complete ban on bouncers, saying cricket is not worth dying
for. Others dissented, arguing this would only accentuate the growing imbalance
in the game, already loaded in favour of batsmen. They also pointed out that
the injury suffered by Hughes was an extremely rare one. Some even said that the real fault was in a
diminishing of batsmen's technical skills against the short ball. They say that
in the era of no helmets – such incidents did not occur ! ~ this was no chin
music by Jeff Thommo, Dennis Lillee, Holding, Croft, Garner, Marshall, Daniels,
Imran, Akram, Shoaib, Bob Willis or ….
!!
## Then
there was the debate on the head gear – whether he would have been saved by a
different kind of gear, not to speak of the quality. The
Masuri helmet that he was using left a significant part of the neck exposed.
Most top Indian cricketers prefer to use the Indian-made Forma helmets, which
have deeper protection at the back ! They say that fomra helmets offer better
protection in the grill plank too, as seen in Broad getting hurt off Varun
Aaron.
These were the
pre-helmet days and it was indeed a miracle that cricket did not see too many
fatalities despite the fact that the protective equipment was not as effective
as it is today. What stood out then was the technique of the batsmen. It was a
100 years after the introduction of the abdomen guard that the helmet made its
appearance on a cricket field.
I had
earlier based on the video clippings and newsitems lauded the alacrity with
which treatment was given – but that too is now under scanner. The players did react swiftly and reacted
with awareness on how to handle a victim – but the response time of the ambulances is now being criticised amidst
conflicting reports from various agencies.
## Some reports
suggest that the head of New South Wales Ambulance was to be hauled before the
state health minister Jillian Skinner on Thursday after the ambulance authority
issued conflicting statements about their response times. The arrival of the
first ambulance took 15 minutes, NSW Ambulance clarified in a statement on
Wednesday. The state's median response time for the highest priority
"life-threatening cases" was just under eight minutes in 2013-14,
according the authority's statistics.
The photos and
reports do reveal that an air ambulance helicopter landed on the outfield and
doctors performed CPR on the field after Hughes was stretchered from the pitch
and shrouded by screens. He was taken to St Vincent’s Hospital in Darlinghurst
by road ambulance and arrived on life support.
The timeline was
stated to be :
2.23pm: Phil hit by a bouncer and falls to the ground
2.29pm: Sydney
Cricket Ground staff raise the alarm and phone triple-0 for an ambulance
2.37pm:
Another call is made to NSW Ambulance
2.44pm: An
ambulance that responded to the second call for help arrives at SCG
2.52pm: The
ambulance responding to the first call made 23 minutes ago finally arrives at
the scene
The NSW
Ambulance timeline is bit different.
NSW AMBULANCE
TIMETABLE
2.37pm: NSW
Ambulance receives first 000call from the ground [i.e., 14 minutes after the
fall]
2.44pm: NSW
Ambulance and two paramedics arrive at SCG
2.50pm: NSW
Ambulance helicopter tasked to respond
3.02pm: Two
more ambulances and four paramedics arrive
3.05pm: NSW
Ambulance helicopter lands at the SCG
Some experts say
that the delay in paramedics reaching batsman
after he was hit in the head by a 135km/h bouncer may have been critical
to his chances of survival. Health Minister Jillian Skinner last night
confirmed she would be meeting with the state’s ambulance commissioner
following confirmation by NSW Ambulance that the first ambulance dispatched
took 23 minutes to reach the SCG — despite the nearest ambulance station, at
Paddington, being just 800m away. Daily Telegraph reporter Ben Horne was at the
SCG and said: “David Warner was signalling for an ambulance to be called and
then sprinted to the boundary to make sure that message was delivered. NSW
officials were running everywhere looking for help. Wicketkeeper Peter Nevill
was standing out on Driver Ave in his whites looking for an ambulance.” For 21
crucial minutes until the paramedics arrived treatment of Hughes was left in
the hands of NSW team doctor John Orchard, who administered CPR after Hughes
was stretchered to the boundary.
Peter Nevill and Dave Warner Signal
When the three
ambulances arrived and were joined by a doctor on a NSW Ambulance helicopter, a
tube was inserted to clear Hughes’s airway before he was finally driven to St
Vincent’s Hospital, just 1.5km away. Hughes had been on the ground for 40
minutes.
So,
what killed Hughes ???? ~ meantime, the
bowler Sean Abbott was visibly distraught after learning of the death. The young cricketer wiped away tears after
visiting the hospital - the cricketing
community has rallied around the 22-year-old bowler over fears for his
emotional well-being. Past and present
players have come out to offer their support to Abbott, insisting the tragic
death was not his fault.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
28th Nov. 2014.
