ROWAN’S FINAL DAYS AFTER CONCUSSION

MAY 3, 2013

Rowan Stringer, captain of Ottawa’s John McCrae Secondary School team, plays three games in an all-day rugby tournament. Her mom steps out briefly after the second game for a Tim Hortons run and returns partway through the third game. While she is gone, Rowan is hit in the head. She goes to the bench, shakes it off, then returns to the field. In the evening, she complains to her mom of a headache and asks for a painkiller, but does not mention the incident in the game.

MAY 6

Kathleen Stringer travels to Brandon, Man., for work. Rowan plays another game in which she is dragged to the ground and kicked in the head. The headache returns.

MAY 7

Rowan is not feeling right, as evidenced by her exchange of texts with friend Michelle Hebert. “I might have gotten a concussion ... have a headache again,” she writes. “How was your game?” Hebert asks. “Well I smashed it on the ground and then got kicked in the head.” “Doesn’t that happen every time?” “Which is why I probably have a concussion.” “Ya well,” Hebert replies. “You need to stop dying ... Are you still going to play on Wednesday?” “Yeah. Nothing can stop meeee! Unless I’m dead.” “I’m sure you’ll be fine by then.” “Unless concussion!” “Are you going to get it checked?” “Nope. Just see if it gets worse.” Hebert suggests Rowan go see a doctor. “Meh, what’s some brain damage gonna hurt?”

MAY 8

Rowan suits up for another rugby match. In the second half, she is grabbed by the shirt and thrown to the ground with an illegal swing tackle. Rowan lands on her head. She sits up, then falls back to the ground, losing consciousness. She is rushed by ambulance to the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario.

MAY 11

Kathleen Stringer climbs into her daughter’s hospital bed, rests her head on her daughter’s right shoulder and wraps her arm around her body. She sings the same lullabies she used to sing when Rowan was a baby. That night, Rowan is wheeled into the operating room where — in a final act of kindness, according to her previously stated wishes — surgeons remove her heart, lungs, liver, pancreas, kidneys and corneas for organ donation.

MAY 12 MOTHER’S DAY

Rowan Stringer is declared dead at noon. Her official cause of death is second-impact syndrome, a rare condition when a second concussion occurs before a previous one has time to heal, causing severe swelling of the brain.