Eagles fly half Kayondo dead

Eye witnesses say Kayondo fell on his neck during the game. He is said to have been operated on Saturday night at Kampala Hospital.

Eye witness accounts indicate that he was treated for about eight minutes as he lay motionless on the Kaydondo turf.

“He was then stretchered to the ambulance which took another 10 or so minutes before driving off. One of the medics, after returning from the ambulance said he'd be fine,” an eye witness said.

Kayondo now becomes the second player to die after a rugby-related injury in Uganda.

In 2013, the rugby world mourned the sudden death of Yusuf Zaidi, who collapsed and breathed his last during a Uganda Cup game between Nile and Buffaloes in Jinja.

While rugby, through the Uganda Rugby Medical Society (URMS), has paid a lot of attention to the safety of athletes, the latest death will again highlight the debate about the same.

According to the regulations by Uganda Rugby Union (URU), an ambulance for an elite game must have at least 13 categories of specified equipment and supplies.

Among them include crutches, oxygen, manual resuscitator, non-rebreather mask, defibrillator, airway adjuncts, life-saving drugs and several others.

There’s a huge support from the rugby-leaning medical practitioners who volunteer to support this cause but they could as well remain an oasis.

Last year, Ugandan football tragically lost assistant referee Peter Kabugo who collapsed around the 72nd minute of the StarTimes Uganda Premier League game between Villa and UPDF.

The official was pronounced dead upon arrival at Bismillah Hospital leaving the fraternity mourning while the incident took away Villa’s shine in their emphatic 5-0 win.

While the cause of his demise has not been released to the public, tragedy is never far away. While these deaths may not have directly been caused by a lack of emergency care, but other related cases highlight how medical negligence can lead to similar consequences.