RIP Phillip Hughes

[ross blackford]

Sadly this afternoon the Australian cricket batsman Phillip Hughes passed away without regaining consciousness. RIP Phil. Hughes was hit in the head by a fast ball at the Sydney Cricket ground on Tuesday. He was transported by helicopter to St. Vincents Hospital. There are reports that the helicopter took 42 minutes after the incident to arrive at the SCG. It's about 2 kilometers from the SCG to the hospital. What's wrong with good old road ambulances for such a short trip. It wasn't peak hour when this happened. For once I agree with the Telegraph newspaper's headline; "Why did it take so long?" The incident occurred at 2:23 pm and the helicopter didn't arrive till 3:05 pm. He could have been getting prepared for surgery by then if he'd been transported by road. There's a saying in the NSW Ambulance Service; Seconds count. I wondered what went wrong in this case.

Ross.

[Crazy Snap Captain]

Sad and tragic news. Prayers to his family and friends.

[HOLMES]

MY condolences...

http://www.aol.co.uk/article/2014/11/27/phil-hughes-australian-batsman-dies-aged-25/20999744/?icid=maing-grid7%7Cukt1%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk1%26pLid%3D310635

[ross blackford]

Lord knows, Harold Larwood, under the orders of England captain Douglas Jardine bowled many really fast bouncers that hit Sir Donald Bradman in the head in the 1930 series. No helmets back then, only the baggy green and it was only good for keeping the sun off your head and face. The Don was knocked to the ground several times under Larwood's bowling but once he got the measure of Larwood, Bradman smashed him all over and out of the ground. When Bradman retired from the game his run average was 99.99. It's said that if he'd been able to score one more run he would have made the ton as his average.

From the replays I've seen Phil Hughes turned his head side on just as the ball bounced up at his head. Perhaps if he'd faced the ball front on it may still have hit him in the head but would have bounced off the face shield of the helmet and gone up over his head. In this case the ball hit Phil just below and a little behind the left ear. Phil was only 25 years old. My prayers and condolences also to his family, friends and cricket colleagues.

Ross.

[JB2013]

[madmike]

Vale Phil Hughes.

Please do not forget Sean Abbott, he needs everyone's support currently.

[ross blackford]

Yes Mike, we do need to remember Sean too. My prayers for him as well.

Ross.

[stevehnz]

I've been following this since 1st hearing of it, simply so so sad. Condolences to his family, friends & followers.

There was an interview on our telly last night with a doctor at the hospital where he was, the doctor explained that the ball had crushed & split Pillip's carotid artery which had then caused huge bleeding into the brain & was quite simply inoperable, from this I suspect reaction time may not have made any difference, though I can only go by what was said in the interview.

RIP Phillip Hughes.

Steve.

Edited November 28, 2014 by stevehnz

[Scooby]

Before you point any fingers at the helicopter crews, I'd be willing to bet there was more going on than you know.

From dispatch to take-off, my group is in the air in less than 7 minutes. At times all of this is delayed by events on the ground with the patient.

There ae two sides to every story, don't trust media reports,

[ross blackford]

:D, Scooby, I didn't point any fingers at the chopper's crew. Read the post again please. I've since learned that he was transported by road. Also please read stevehnz's post again. I wasn't aware of that fact at the time I posted the OP. The chopper that was used I'm certain is based at Westmead in Sydney's outer western suburbs so it would have taken more than 7 minutes to launch and arrive on scene but definitely much less than 42 minutes to arrive at the SCG if that call had been made when needed. It may well have been a glitch in the system or someone on scene not making the call as it really was. There are several things I was not happy with viewing the video, but I know, having been in the NSW Ambulance Service for a while that in cases like this the usual doctrine is scoop and run. However the Ambulance service may not have got the call until very late in the sequence. I don't know what the sequence of events was or who did what and when so I'm very loathe to point any fingers at anyone. As I said, seconds count, but as Steve said it wouldn't have made any difference in this case because his left carotid artery was squashed and ruptured causing a massive inoperable bleed into his brain.

Just an example that happened to me and my partner one Sunday morning at Blacktown station. We got a call saying there was a woman appearing ill on the side of the road at Parklea. No road name or anything. Off we went patrolling the main road from Blacktown to Kellyville looking for this woman appearing ill. We went all the way to Kellyville and saw no one on the side of the road. We then did a round of the side and back streets and still saw no one so we called it as a hoax call and told the dispatcher we were returning to station. About 2/3 of the way home he called us up again and told us there was new info and the woman was having an asthma attack at the St. John first aid room at Parklea Markets.

When we arrived I spoke to the young St. John corporal fist aider on duty and told him he'd have to give better details in future. He replied that he'd given all the necessary details to the call taker but she didn't seem to understand him and as she had a very heavy Chinese accent and he was Chinese he tried to tell her in Chinese but of course they didn't speak the same Chinese. I knew exactly who he was talking about because she had been on a call takers' course the last week of my ambulance basic course and she hardly spoke any English at all. We had Superintendants shaking their heads and asking how the heck she'd got the job in the first place. It turns out she'd paid someone who looked like her and spoke, read, wrote excellent English to do all the testing for her, then when she was accepted she just turned up for the course. After my complaint and those of quite a few other officers an investigation was carried out and she was taken out of the coordination centre and gone within 2 weeks. I shudder to think how many people may have died if she'd been allowed to continue.

As it was we got our lady to Blacktown Hospital under lights and sirens and she survived, with no help form the call taker I might add. Now if there's any doubt about a person's ability to understand English they don't get past first base or if they do by cheating and there's any doubt during the course they are dismissed from the service pronto. Which is how it should be. What I'm saying is there may have been other human factors besides the chopper crew involved in all this sad incident. I was in no way blaming the chopper crew. I'm fully aware of the wonderful work they do and would be the last to deride them.

Ross.