Doctor’s surprise at no op for boxer
AN A&E consultant told the inquiry into the death of Scottish boxer Mike Towell he was “surprised and disappointed” that surgeons felt they couldn’t operate.
Ryan Connelly, 37, said Mike was “profoundly unconscious” when he arrived at the emergency department of Glasgow Royal Infirmary and was given an emergency CT scan.
He said he left the scan to phone a surgeon because “if anything was going to save his life it wold be immediate neurosurgery”.
Mr Connelly said he was told “it was an unsurvivable injury and would not be amenable to neurosurgery”.
The emergency medicine doctor said he was quite surprised and disappointed they felt they couldn’t operate.
He said he pushed for Mike to be transferred to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for him to go to the neurosurgery intensive care unit.
Dr Christopher Greenhalgh also gave evidence that he tended to Mike immediately after he collapsed in the ring, and travelled with him to hospital after the boxer had fallen unconscious.
The doctors gave evidence for a second day at the probe into the 25-year-old fighter’s death at Glasgow Sheriff Court yesterday.
Mike, from Dundee, died of a bleed on the brain the day after he lost a bout in the fifth round to Welsh fighter Dale Evans on September 29, 2016.
Iron’ Mike, a welterweight fighter, collapsed after his loss to Evans in the British title eliminator at Glasgow’s St Andrews Sporting Club.
He was taken to hospital but died 24 hours later on September 30.
The inquiry before Sheriff Principal Craig Turnbull continues.