Africa-Press – South-Africa. A Paarl Boys High School student is fighting for his life in ICU following a “freak” head injury he suffered during a rugby match at an Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool (Affies) rugby festival on Tuesday.
The 17-year-old schoolboy, Chris Jordaan Junior, was rushed to hospital and had immediate surgery after suffering bleeding to the brain, which necessitated a four-and-a-half-hour operation.
According to the pupil’s father, Chris Jordaan senior, the eighthman went down under a “normal tackle” but suffered whiplash when his head hit the ground with force during Paarl Boys’ 26-19 win past Affies.
He was then taken to Muelmed Hospital after being quickly attended to by Paarl Boys High’s travelling medical team, who rushed onto the field.
The pupil is said to be in a stable condition but hadn’t regained consciousness at the time of publication.
“He had bleeding on the brain and took quite a serious knock,” the school’s First XV rugby coach, Sean Erasmus, said.
“He is in a stable condition but hasn’t woken up since the incident and we are all very concerned.
“The video doesn’t allow us to see anything [foul] on it that happened. We do see him carrying the ball and taking a bit of a knock.
“Everything looks like it was a freak accident. It doesn’t look like anything malicious or anybody went out with any intent to hurt him. It wasn’t head-to-head contact or anything like that at all.
“Our medical team that travels with the team immediately ran onto the field to help him. They stabilised him immediately and the ambulance came on and moved him as quickly as possible to hospital.”
The pupil’s father, Jordaan, who sounded hopeful, told News24 that his son was doing “OK” following the emergency surgery but they faced a critical 48 hours.
“He’s OK. The doctor phoned me this morning with regards to what happened and he was very happy with the operation last night,” Jordaan said.
“The next 48 hours are very crucial because he’s in an induced coma, so we must just pray and hope everything will be alright and that there’s no brain damage or anything like that.
“That’s all we can hope for at the moment. We must now sit and wait for 48 hours and pray for the best.”
Although the tackle was normal by all accounts, the schoolboy hit the ground so hard that doctors described it as “almost as severe as a car accident”, according to the father.
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“They (Paarl Boys High coaches) watched the video this morning and he was just tackled, a normal tackle and then he went down to the ground,” said Jordaan.
“But he had a whiplash effect with his head hitting the ground. It was nothing funny or anything; just a bad accident and it was unfortunate for him to hit the ground.
“The doctor said it was very severe. The actual hit to the head was almost as severe as a car accident.
“It wasn’t just a normal concussion; there was a lot of bleeding to the brain.”
Rugby safety has been high on the agenda following World Rugby’s recommendation that its member nations lower the legal tackle limit from the shoulder to the middle of the chest.
The South African Rugby Union – which runs a class-leading BokSmart rugby safety programme – is discussing lowering the tackle limit in amateur and schools rugby.
In April last year, 18-year-old Dale College student Liyabona Teyise died after sustaining a head injury in a first-team match against Port Rex in East London.
The incident happened on the evening of the countrywide school sports festivals, as is the case this week ahead of the weekend-long celebration of school sports.
Jordaan, who was still distraught at his son’s accident, praised the efficiency of the medical staff that acted quickly to try and save his child.
“It’s terrible. I don’t know what to say. We’re just waiting and listening to what the doctors have to say,” he said.
“But I’ve been very happy with the neurosurgeon and another doctor that helped last night. They are exceptional people.
“The ambulance took him to Muelmed Hospital in Pretoria and thank goodness, when the neurosurgeon arrived, he decided to operate as soon as possible. They got the theatre ready and did the operation, which took them about four-and-a-half hours.”
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