SYDNEY, (Reuters) – Australia cricketer Phillip Hughes remains in an induced coma after spending a second night in a Sydney, with the local ambulance service now under scrutiny for their response to the accident.
Hughes needed emergency surgery to relieve pressure on his brain after being struck on the head by a ball during a domestic match on Tuesday at the Sydney Cricket Ground, a devastating blow experts have compared to the trauma suffered by victims of a car crash. An update on Hughes’s condition is expected later today.
Medical staff declined to comment on the results of scans yesterday, only to reiterate that the 25-year-old batsman remained in critical condition, his condition unchanged. Local media praised the New South Wales team doctor who performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) after Hughes collapsed, but the response time of ambulances dispatched to the stadium was queried. The head of New South Wales Ambulance was to be hauled before the state health minister Jillian Skinner today 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 yesterday.
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. “Due to the conflicting information distributed today by NSW Ambulance regarding (Tuesday’s) response to the Sydney Cricket Ground, I will be meeting with NSW Ambulance Commissioner Ray Creen tomorrow to discuss the circumstances surrounding the incident,” Skinner said. Dr Peter Larkins, a leading sports physician, told Reuters that Hughes was lucky to have immediate assistance from New South Wales team doctor John Orchard and that there was oxygen available at the ground.
“Time is of the essence when your brain has suffered trauma,” he said. Family and players maintained their vigil at Hughes’ bedside, with Australia captain Michael Clarke returning to the hospital at 6:15 a.m. local time today, local media reported.
