SYDNEY – Phillip Hughes has died as a result of the injuries he sustained when struck by a bouncer on Tuesday, Cricket Australia has confirmed. He was 25.
Team doctor Peter Brukner confirmed the news in a statement released on Thursday afternoon Australia time.
“It is my sad duty to inform you that a short time ago Phillip Hughes passed away,” Brukner said. “He never regained consciousness following his injury on Tuesday. He was not in pain before he passed and was surrounded by his family and close friends.
“As a cricket community we mourn his loss and extend our deepest sympathies to Phillip’s family and friends at this incredibly sad time. Cricket Australia kindly asks that the privacy of the Hughes family, players and staff be respected.”
Players, coaches and other friends had been in and out of St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney throughout Wednesday and Thursday, visiting Hughes and supporting his family, and each other.
Australia’s captain Michael Clarke, a close friend of Hughes, had been at the hospital until after midnight on Wednesday night and returned at about 6 a.m. on Thursday.
Brad Haddin, Steven Smith, Shane Watson, David Warner, Nathan Lyon, Moises Henriques, Mitchell Starc and Daniel Smith all spent time at the hospital, as did Ricky Ponting, Simon Katich, Phil Jaques and Brett Lee.
Some flew in from interstate, including Aaron Finch, Matthew Wade, Peter Siddle, Peter Forrest, George Bailey, Ed Cowan, Justin Langer, and Cricket Australia’s CEO James Sutherland and high performance manager Pat Howard. The national coach Darren Lehmann was there as well.
The Hughes family had kept vigil at the hospital, including his mother and sister, who had been at the Sheffield Shield match between South Australia and New South Wales on Tuesday when Hughes was struck by the bouncer while batting on 63.
Hughes missed his attempted hook and the ball struck him below the helmet, causing a cerebral haemorrhage. He underwent surgery on Tuesday after being rushed to hospital from the SCG, and was then in an induced coma.
“It’s really a matter of millimetres and the bad luck of the actual site of the impact,” sports doctor Peter Larkins told the Australian on Wednesday. “It’s very critical what part of the brain gets hit, you can actually just get a bruised brain or simply a crack in the skull when you get hit in certain parts of the head and not have anything as serious as Phillip has got. In this case it’s hit a particular artery at the base of the neck that has burst.
“So it’s like bursting a water-main and there’s just an incredible release of blood from the burst artery and that’s where the bleeding in the brain, the cerebral haemorrhage, occurs.” (ESPNCricinfo)
