The family of a young Darling Downs boxer who died from a potentially treatable head injury have joined forces with rural doctors in a bold new push to build a neurosurgical unit in Toowoomba.
23-year-old Brayden Smith collapsed 90 minutes after a ten round boxing match in Toowoomba in 2015.
He was rushed to Toowoomba Hospital, but had to be airlifted to Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital, where he died two days later.
His dad, renowned trainer Brendon Smith, has since been instrumental in launching The Great White Campaign, a group that aims to bring a neurosurgeon to Toowoomba. The group is named after Brayden who was known as ‘The Great White’ in the boxing ring.
"We understand we are not the first and won't be the last family to receive the news we did...” Mr Smith said.
"We asked the doctor at Toowoomba Hospital: `Can we operate straight away?'
"And when we were told there isn't a neurosurgeon in Toowoomba, it was devastating."
When we were told there isn't a neurosurgeon in Toowoomba, it was devastating.
- Brendon Smith
The Great White Campaign has teamed up with the Rural Doctors Association of Queensland (RDAQ) Foundation and Rotary Edge, a satellite club of Toowoomba Rotary South Club to push for better health services in rural areas.
The three groups were integral supporters of the first Heads and Hearts Safety in Sports luncheon at The Spotted Cow in Toowoomba last week.
While special guest, cartoonist Larry Pickering bought some light relief to the event, the real message focused on the critical importance of timely medical treatment in trauma cases.
Tressa Lindenberg, Smith’s aunt, believes access to these specialist services in regional areas is critical to ensure the best possible care is available for the thousands of young sports people, who compete outside metropolitan cities each weekend.
RDAQ Foundation Chairman Adam Coltzau said his organisation was committed to exploring how earlier access to necessary trauma care could be provided, in Toowoomba, and right across rural Queensland.
“We know the health outcomes in rural and regional areas are not as good as in the city. We know that trauma is an issue, and head trauma particularly so where time really is of the essence,” he said.
“Head trauma accounts for half the deaths in trauma cases and 70 per cent of the fatalities in motor vehicle crashes. There is a body of evidence that indicates early management of severe trauma leads to better outcomes, this is particularly so for head injuries.”
At the moment Dr Coltzau said the only Queensland neurological centres are located in Townsville, the Gold Coast and Brisbane, meaning vast areas over the Great Dividing Range are often, in the case of head trauma, hours from specialist help.
So the RDAQ are now calling for advanced skills training and the provision of specialist equipment for rural doctors, so in the event of a head trauma they can start treatment, under the guidance of a specialist via video link or phone.
“The sort of brain traumas we are talking about occur through things like a head knock at footy, a fall from a height like off a roof, and car and motorbike accidents,” Dr Coltzau said.
The sort of brain traumas we are talking about occur through things like a head knock at footy, a fall from a height like off a roof, and car and motorbike accidents.
- Dr Adam Coltzau
“Where someone sustains a significant knock to the head that causes an extradural hematoma, which means there is bleeding onto the surface of the brain.
“This can at times be relieved by drilling a small hole, called a Burr Hole, through the skull to relieve the pressure and reduce the bleeding and risk of brain damage and death. This procedure is reasonably straightforward to do, but is not without significant risk.
“What the RDAQ Foundation would like to see is rural doctors, generalists surgeons and emergency doctors, who are working in regional and remote Queensland being given advanced skills training, the equipment and the support to do this procedure in life-threatening situations.”
Dr Coltzau said this was not a procedure doctors were likely to need to do with any regularity.
“It is difficult to quantify, but there might be nine or 10 cases requiring this sort of treatment across the state each year, and in truth most doctors would probably only do it once in their career,” he said.
“I’ve never drilled into someone’s skull and it would be something you did with some anxiety, but what RDAQ Foundation wants is doctors with the skillsets to do this and support and permission from Queensland Health when we know medical transfers aren’t going to happen in time.
“It would also be great if there was a neurosurgeon, who understood the challenges of distance in rural areas available to support, consult and guide doctors through these emergencies.
“We also need our rural and regional communities to support their doctors having a go and trying to save precious lives in what are very difficult circumstances.”