Tragic death of Ferntree Gully cricketer Ben Austin eerily similar to accident that claimed Phil Hughes
The shock death of young Ferntree Gully cricketer Ben Austin after being hit in the neck by a ball has similarities to the freakish accident that claimed the life of Australian Test cricketer Phil Hughes.
The shock death of a young Victorian cricketer after being hit in the neck by a ball is eerily similar to the freakish accident that claimed Phil Hughes.
Hughes, 25, was an Australian Test cricketer who was also hit in the back of the neck attempting a hook shot at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 2014.
While details have not yet been released to confirm the cause of Ben Austin’s death on Thursday, the similarities suggest the teenager may also have suffered a vertebral artery dissection.
This happens when there is a tear in the lining of an artery. It can happen spontaneously, or by blunt trauma.
Professor of Sports Medicine at La Trobe University and former Australian Cricket team doctor Peter Brukner has done extensive research into cricket fatalities.
He said if the cause was vertebral artery dissection, Ben would be only the third cricketer in Australia in the last 50 years to have died this way.
“It is incredibly rare,” Dr Brukner said.
He was Cricket Australia’s chief doctor when Hughes died and said there was one other case, in 1963, also involving a cricketer practising in the nets in suburban Melbourne.
Dr Brukner said the injury happens when a ball or object strikes the vertebral artery in the neck.
“And it causes a tear in the wall of the artery and then blood shoots into the wall and up into the brain causing a brain (subarachnoid) haemorrhage, which is fatal,” he said.
Ben was wearing a helmet and batting in the nets when he was hit on Wednesday afternoon and rushed to Monash Medical Centre in Clayton in a critical condition. He was placed on life support and sadly died on Thursday morning.
Dr Brukner said head injuries in cricket had declined dramatically since the 1980s when helmets became compulsory.
He said Cricket Australia had made neck guards, which clip onto helmets, mandatory following Hughes’ death for its players, but had strongly recommended them for community cricket.
“I think at some stage Cricket Australia will have to decide whether or not to make neck guards mandatory (for all levels of cricket).”
Dr Brukner said cricket was a safe sport compared to others.
“When this happens I guess that makes it even more shocking, because a death is so rare.”
Ben’s parents Jace and Tracey Austin said on Thursday they found some comfort that their son was doing something he did for so many summers – “going down to the nets with mates to play cricket. He loved cricket and it was one of the joys of his life.”
