No safeguards for fatal blows

A boxing student of the Guru Nanak College died of brain haemorrhage early on Thursday after he suffered a blow to the head during a bout 36 hours ago at the annual inter-collegiate boxing tournament organised by the University of Mumbai at its Kalina campus.

Twenty-one-year-old Pramod Sav’s death has put the spotlight on poor safety and emergency aid measures in place at local sports events.

Although the boxing competition, which saw more than 200 students participating from across the state, began on November 27, not a single ambulance was deployed at the venue. The Indian Boxing Federation and the World Boxing Federation have made the presence of a doctor with an ambulance mandatory at all boxing events. Ditto the rule for athletics, football and cricket championships.

But university authorities and organisers of the event, the Mumbai Boxing Association, threw caution to the winds by ignoring this safety measure.

When DNA questioned UN Kendre, the sports director of the University of Mumbai, about it, he passed the buck to the MBA. “An ambulance should be deployed but we (university) are responsible only for hospitality at the inter-collegiate competition. To ensure that all rules are followed is the organiser’s (MBA) call.”

But MBA president Ranjan Jothady picked holes in the rule book. “The presence of an ambulance is not mandatory,” he claimed.
When DNA reminded him about the boxing federations’ rule, he said, “Ambulances are mandatory for big, national or international events. For local-level events, they are not. Anyway, the student died while he was going home. Moreover, our medical doctor had examined him before the event, as per boxing rules. He was fit for the bout. We ensured that he was wearing a head gear and gloves. His death was an unusual incident.”

He shifted the blame to the university. “It’s the university’s responsibility to deploy such measures.” He, however, later admitted to a lapse on part of the organisers. “We should have hired an ambulance. We will now arrange it.”

Too late for that now, since the finale of the boxing competition was on Friday.

According to eyewitnesses, Sav, a third-year BCom student, complained of uneasiness and nausea soon after losing a match and decided to head home at 9pm. Although he had no serious external injuries, his friends took him to the Sion Hospital, where was given artificial respiration. He was later shifted to the Bombay Hospital, but he slipped into coma even before admission. He died soon after a surgery to remove the clot in the brain.