We were reminded of the potential risks of sport this weekend when Hull City player Ryan Mason suffered a serious head injury during the match against Chelsea. The clash of heads with an opponent was purely accidental, but could easily have been life-threatening. Medical attention was provided seconds after the incident, giving the injured player the best possible chance of recovery.
Spare a thought, then, for young Thomas Hogg, who, according to a marginal note by the Coroner, “came to his death owing to a fall in playing at football”.
I am not sure how Thomas fits into my tree, but he is bound to have been related in some way to my second great grandmother Dorothy Hogg. I have not yet been able to find out exactly how Thomas came to be injured – no slo-mo replays back then, but the presence of anyone able to provide effective medical assistance would have been a matter of chance. Even if a doctor had been present, his knowledge of head trauma would have been vanishingly small in comparison to the people present at Stamford Bridge, the Chelsea ground, where the medical team were able to administer oxygen, and to deploy equipment to immobilise the casualty. He was then rushed to hospital, where he underwent an emergency operation to address bleeding of the brain. Thomas would have had none of that.
The last I heard was that Ryan Mason was sitting up and talking; here’s hoping that he makes a full recovery.
Andrew's Kindred 