Cricket player dies after ball strikes gap in helmet

[CHL]

Here's how it happened:

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/11/27/sport/phil-hughes-what-killed-him/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

The shocking death of Phil Hughes, just days before the popular Australia cricketer would have turned 26, has left the sports world wondering one thing: How could this happen?
Hughes was wearing a helmet, but in a freak combination of circumstances, his head was turned away from the ball as it bounced up to him.

The ball came up below his helmet, outside his face guard, hitting him in a sensitive part of the neck. It smashed the critical vertebral artery, which carries blood from the heart up into the head.

Is cricket safe? Death of Phil Hughes raises questions about equipment

"That caused the artery to split and for bleeding to go up into the brain," Australian team doctor Peter Bruckner said. "And he had a massive bleed into his brain."

While it's incredibly rare for such a thing to happen on a sports field, the injury is not that uncommon in some car crashes, medical literature suggests -- perhaps occurring in 1% to 3% of accidents. Other blunt trauma to the neck, or strangulation, can cause the same damage.

It's even possible for the artery to split with no obvious immediate injury, in what specialists call "spontaneous vertebral artery dissection."

If that happens, it can be less obviously traumatic than what happened to Hughes, leading to a slow leak rather than the massive bleeding that killed the athlete.

About one or 1.5 people in 100,000 suffer spontaneous vertebral artery dissection every year, a review of the literature suggests.

It's among the leading causes of strokes in people ages 45 and younger, the study finds.

 

[darius19]

I don't see how the guy who pitched that is gonna be able to play again after that guilt...sad situation

 

[Raptor]

R.i.p to the guy. I personally don't know how hard a crickett ball is, but I use to play baseball and I hit in the calf with a fastball and after the season stopped playing. In my head it made no sense why a ball that hard was coming at you that fast

A cricket ball is about 20 grams heavier than a softball but half the size, it's basically concrete wrapped in leather

 

[Danie84]

Cricket Players' bout that life

 

[Sane]

Much More Dangerous than Baseball

Trying facing just 70 mph from a machine and come back and talk

Cricket balls are 3x harder than baseballs

 

[Raptor]

Baseball pitchers pride themselves in being able to control where they throw the ball. These dudes that hurl that cricket ball seem to give two fukks where that ball lands.

Cricket is actually a precision game. Watch Shane Warnes spin bowling. The great thing about the softball(I used okay softball as a kid) is that because the ball is larger, the impact area is large and the force would spread out so besides bruising you'll never break any bones or severe arteries . With a cricket ball, because it's so densely packed, and the impact area is small, you expect tgere to be some damage if you're hit in an unprotected area. That's why they are all padded up. Or else expect a few broken bones.

He walked away form that because that pitcher doesn't throw hard. If that was Aroldis Chapman throwing it, he'd still be hospitalized.

 

[merklman]

Supposedly the gap is "too small for a ball to pass through". But it's happened a number of times.

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/nov/25/phil-hughes-cricket-helmets-manufacter-safety

Its hard to tell from the video where it hits him. The shot he plays is not a typical shot, his head is turned when the ball strikes him in the area behind the ear where the helmet doesnt really protect so much. But, then again the helmet is pretty much designed to protect frontal impacts

RIP though