The untold story of Twickenham’s most traumatic event
Murphy, EX-RFU council member, returns to HQ today 10 years since he was saved after a cardiac arrest on pitch
‘For all intents and purposes, as I lay on the pitch at Twickenham, I was dead for 11½ minutes,” says Alex Murphy, in a matter-of-fact manner reserved only for those who have survived a near-death experience.
Murphy, a former loosehead prop for London Irish and the Irish Wolfhounds, will make an emotional return to Twickenham today to watch England’s match against Tonga, almost 10 years to the day since he nearly lost his life there.
The untold story of the most traumatic incident to have occurred at the home of England rugby began at 3.26pm on Nov 11, 2011 when Murphy collapsed, just under the posts at the south end of the stadium.
Murphy was playing in a starstudded “Legends” side against the Commons and Lords RUFC in a charity match. Steve Borthwick, now Leicester’s head coach and a former England captain, and Richard Hill, England’s World Cup-winning flanker and the current team manager for Eddie Jones’s side, were coaching the two sides.
Murphy’s only memory of the game now was speaking with Borthwick and Hill in the changing rooms before the game and introducing the medical team, which included Simon Kemp, the Rugby Football Union’s medical services director, and Barney Kenny, who was then England’s senior team physio.
“I told the players they could not have better medical cover at a game,” recalls Murphy. He could not have known then they would soon be called upon to save his life.
It was at the start of the second half when the horrifying incident occurred. It had been an exhausting year for Murphy, who at the time was also something of a firebrand Rugby Football Union council member who had led the resistance to former chairman Martyn Thomas at a time when the governing body was on the brink of meltdown.
Murphy was also a qualified referee, and before his match had officiated another charity game before the main event. Yet the cardiac arrest Murphy suffered was not due to exhaustion, any underlying health condition or stress, but a freak phenomenon known as commotio cordis, which is a sudden blunt impact to the chest that often causes lethal disruption of heart rhythm.
The footage shows Murphy receiving a blow at a ruck before he collapsed as what should have been a lighthearted charity event turned into a horror show, witnessed firsthand by his son Rory, who was in the Commons and Lords team.
Murphy says it was only for the quick-thinking of referee David Rose, and the immediate attention by Kemp, Barney and two paramedics from London Ambulance Service, that kept him alive.
It is thought to be the only time medics have had to treat such a severe life-threatening incident in Twickenham’s 114-year history.
“We saw that Alex didn’t get up after a ruck on the opponents’ line and immediately ran on,” recalls Kemp. “He was breathing very occasionally, but his carotid pulse was absent so we started CPR and called for the pitchside paramedics to assist. We applied an automated defibrillator and a shock was advised.”
“He was down for a long, long time and I could see the medical team doing CPR,” says Borthwick. “I feared the worst. I am just immensely grateful to all the people who managed to save him.”
It proved to be a life-changing moment. Murphy, whose former clubs also include Henley and Lincoln, made a full recovery and soon returned to refereeing and served for nine years on the RFU council, where he campaigned for grassroots clubs to install defibrillators.
He keeps the jersey that had to be cut off him as a reminder to cherish every day and, in appreciation of the medics who saved him, he trained as a first responder and now leads a 999 ambulance team 24 hours each week in the north of England.
“I got into medicine to be able to take the skills into the community because of the importance of being able to rapidly treat people who have a cardiac arrest. It saved my life and I just want to help save others.”