Victim let go’ fight

Press, 27 June 1989, Page 6

Victim let go’ fight

PA Auckland A student, Mark Latu, aged 20, who broke his neck in a rugby tackle, told his sister he could feel his body go numb as he lay on the sideline waiting for an ambulance to arrive. Mark was in a lot of pain then and later in hospital, said his sister, Ms Sami Daly. “We kept telling him to fight against it but, in the end, I think he just gave up, because he didn’t want to live, if he couldn’t walk. He told mum to please let him go.” On the day he was hurt, Mr Latu cancelled an appointment with his minister to turn out on the wing for the Mount Roskill under 21 side.

Mr Latu was close to achieving his lifetime aim of studying at the Theolog-

ical College in Apia. He was to sit entry examinations in August and saw the minister regularly for tuition. “He loved the church — but he must have loved his sport more,” Ms Daly said.

Mr Latu developed pneumonia and died in Middlemore Hospital on June 15, 10 days after the accident. The family criticised a 30 to 40minute delay in getting Mr Latu to hospital and said more prompt attention might have saved his life. An Auckland orthopaedic surgeon, Mr Ross Nicholson, said that while there was evidence fast attention from experts could improve the prognosis of spinal patients, it was not feasible to have such teams on the sideline at every game.