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Doctor queries wisdom of Lote's action
Wayne Smith | April 18, 2008 Doctor queries wisdom of Lote's action | The Australian
LOTE TUQIRI's well-intentioned actions in rolling Matt Giteau on his side after he was knocked out in last weekend's Waratahs-Western Force match could have caused Giteau to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair.
That is a worst-case and even alarmist scenario. But so widespread was the media's coverage of Tuqiri's spontaneous act of good sportsmanship that Force team doctor Peter Steele has become concerned that other players might follow the Wallabies winger's example with disastrous consequences.
Had Giteau suffered a cervical spine fracture when his front-on tackle of Waratahs fullback Sam Norton-Knight went horribly wrong at Subiaco Oval, Tuqiri's actions in rolling him 90 degrees onto his side could have seriously damaged his spinal cord, Steele warned yesterday.
"He (Giteau) was lucky that there was no further damage," Steele said.
"It's very rare to have a bad cervical spine fracture. Touch wood, we haven't had one in quite a while, but we always look at a worst-case scenario and prepare for that."
Rare as such injuries are, one occurred last September in the opening week of the NFL season when Buffalo Bills tight end Kevin Everett suffered fractures of the third and fourth vertebrae in his neck attempting a front-on tackle of the Denver Broncos' Domenik Hixon.
The tackle was almost identical to Giteau's, according to Steele, although the impact might have been greater.
The difference was that where Giteau was "only" knocked unconscious, Everett initially was paralsyed.
But thanks to a pioneering procedure by the Buffalos doctor to induce mild hypothermia by pumping cold saline into his body, the damage to Everett's spinal cord was minimised and he is now walking again.
The Force doctor praised Tuqiri for staying by Giteau when he saw his Wallabies team-mate slump to the ground and ensuring that he was not further injured as play went on around him.
"But he shouldn't have rolled him because of the risk of cervical spine fracture, because you really need three people to roll someone like that, to stabilise the head and neck," he said.
"So although the CPR guidelines are to roll someone onto their side, that's not the case if there might be a spinal injury. Even the lifesaving advice is that if someone is unconscious, they might have dived in and fractured their neck. So even lifesavers don't roll people onto their side. They stabilise their neck."
But what should Tuqiri have done? "Made sure the airway was clear but otherwise do nothing except stand guard," Steele said.
Giteau will miss the match against the Queensland Reds tonight but is expected to be fully recovered for the next game against the Chiefs on May 3. He admitted he would have done exactly what Tuqiri did had the positions been reversed.
"To be honest, I don't know what is the best thing to do," Giteau said. "I would have thought what Lote did was the best thing to do."
The Force's media officer Crispin Roberts first raised with Steele the question of whether Tuqiri had acted correctly. Roberts, who was rendered a quadriplegic in a scrum engagement while playing for Cottesloe nearly five years ago, admitted he had been concerned when he saw the Waratahs winger rolling Giteau onto his side.
"My heart was in my mouth," Roberts said.