So this kid voluntarily serves his country in wartime, then serves his community as a police officer, then volunteers for a charity boxing match and ends up in critical condition. With all the shit he’s been through I bet he wasn’t even nervous for the fight. Probably had plans for later that night :(.
Here’s hoping he makes it out of this ok.
The 100 Club, which benefits public safety officers and firefighters, hosts a boxing match?
Why not just a wet underwear contest? They’d get as much money.
Anyway, you just never know. When I was in the Army you’d occasionally hear about some young 20-something who regularly maxes their physical fitness test suddenly dropping dead during a run. No matter how healthy you are, you can drop dead from some heart defect doctors don’t screen for. My SO used to run five miles a day and then had a stroke from a heart defect no one knew was there.
Could it be something like that, or did he sustain an injury during the fight? Maybe they need to re-think what “safety” means.
A high school football player age 16 from here in town played a scrimmage game last week. He took a hard hit and walked off the field complaining of feeling faint. After he didn’t improve, they took him to the emergency room. He only lived a few more hours. It was a freak accident and his lungs filled with fluid so quickly that the doctors could not save him. I had to drive past the funeral home on the way to pick up the kids and there were easily a line over 1/4 mile long.
I can happen.
If he’d just spent an 18 month tour in Iraq, there’s a very good possibility that he had an undiagnosed concussive brain injury. Tragic.
What do you think might’ve happened and gone undiagnosed? I was talking to my wife about this and we agreed it was probably a pre-existing condition. I can’t imagine someone going so hard in a charity match that they kill a perfectly healthy 22 year old. That usually takes some combination of bad reffing, high-stakes, gross difference in skill levels, and of course prior head trauma. Plus I gotta assume they were wearing headgear.
I’ve seen a few of articles about pretty large numbers of veterans with brain injury from explosive ordinance going undiagnosed; a lot of times they shrug whatever symptoms they have off or attribute them to stress or PTSD. Accidents happen, even freak ones, but if an amateur fight is properly regulated and refereed there’s no reason why it should be any more dangerous than high school football. Here’s a couple of the articles:
Brain injuries in U.S. combat veterans largely undiagnosed
And Britain: