Rugby player's heart stopped by pressure point blow (From York Press)
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Rugby player's heart stopped by pressure point blow
10:14am Tuesday 1st May 2012 in News
By Mike Laycock, Chief reporter
A FORMER York schoolboy’s heart stopped for several minutes during a rugby match due to a pressure point being accidentally struck during a tackle.
It is understood the injury Sam Windross received had similar effects to an infamous martial arts blow to the heart, which has been banned due to its deadly potential.
Sam’s family said he was recovering well following the incident while he was playing for Northallerton Rugby Club on April 21, and hoped to play again next season.
His sister, Georgia, said the former Bootham School pupil, who works as a gamekeeper for North York Moors-based country pursuits firm Rievaulx Sporting Ltd, was responding well to treatment in hospital and had received many messages of support from friends.
As his kit was cut off after he was critically injured, he has asked his family to get a replacement kit ready for him for next season.
The Yorkshire Division Three game against Halifax Vandals, in West Yorkshire, was abandoned after the winger collapsed, and a medical student in the Northallerton team, along with a theatre matron and an ambulance responder who were watching the match, tried to resuscitate him.
Percy Barraclough, the club’s secretary, said news of the winger’s steady, but remarkable recovery in Huddersfield General Infirmary’s intensive care unit had been a huge relief to everyone connected with the North Yorkshire and Halifax clubs.
He said: “There are still issues with his recovery – it will be slow as his heart stopped for quite a number of minutes.”
Mr Windross will continue to receive treatment, including physiotherapy, at the hospital’s coronary care unit until he is strong enough to be transferred to the James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough.
Mr Barraclough said: “We all went through the same emotions that what happened to Sam might have been something specifically to do with rugby, but it was an unusual set of circumstances that could affect anyone.”
