Intro:

Reaction after the death of Australian batsman Phillip Hughes.

Script:

SOUNDBITE: (English) SOUNDBITE: (English) Peter Brukner, Australian Cricket Team Doctor:

"Phillip took the blow at the side of the neck and as a result of that blow, his vertebral artery, one of the main arteries leading to the brain was compressed by the ball. That caused the artery to split and for bleeding to go up into the brain. He had a massive bleed into his brain. This is frequently fatal at the time."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Dr. Tony Grabs, St. Vincent's Hospital:

"The head injury that he suffered was catastrophic. He arrived well incubated and resuscitated very well. It was our recognition that the first priority in this situation is to get an urgent CAT scan of the head to determine what we can do. This CAT scan occurred very early and it was early recognised that we had to make an intervention into the brain to actually help get the pressure down in the brain."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Dr. Tony Grabs, St. Vincent's Hospital:

"He went to theatre and had extensive surgery to remove some of the skull around his brain to help allow the brain to expand so it wasn't compressed. The surgery took about an hour and 20 minutes or so and he was transferred back to the intensive care unit. This would be our normal procedure. After this we need to induce a coma to rest the patient and rest the brain and look after all the other bodily functions for him. Over a period of the first 24 to 48 hours as we know, he did not make very much improvement and unfortunately as a consequence of the injury, he died."