Player’s fatal brain bleed

A 17-year-old rugby player who died after a head injury suffered during a match, had only months earlier been cleared from another concussion.

Jordan Teawhi Russell Kemp, a triplet, collapsed while playing a rugby game for Otamatea in Whangarei on the afternoon of July 5, 2014. A recently-released decision from Coroner Brandt Shortland said Kemp was seen to make a tackle with his head in the wrong position, resulting in his head being in front of the running player.

Kemp was quickly attended to by team management and taken to Whangarei Hospital where a CT scan showed he had an acute brain bleed. He was flown to Auckland City Hospital for emergency treatment and neurosurgery but died two days later. Kemp had a history of head injuries - as a young boy he fell off his bike and injured his head. He also suffered a concussion during a rugby match in March 2014, again as a result of an incorrect head position while initiating a tackle, which, according to a post mortem, led to a brain bleed.

‘‘At that time he was followed up appropriately by his GP over several weeks before he was cleared to initiate contact sport,’’ the decision said. Kemp was also the first person in the Northland region to be issued a ‘‘blue card’’ by the Northland Rugby Union, which denoted his concussion risk - he could not play again until cleared. Having met the criteria, he was cleared to play rugby again after April 1, 2014. However, the pathologist said, it was his view that the injury on July 5 led to a re-bleed of the earlier head injury, as a result of a ‘‘clinically silent’’ haematoma.

‘‘This new bleed then set in motion a series of consequential events that led to his death.’’

Coroner Shortland said Kemp’s death ‘‘brings more focus to the importance of properly addressing the potential of death from concussion or knocks to the head while playing rugby or any contact sport involving a collision’’.