Coroner's Court of Western Australia

Inquest into the Death of Torran Jake THOMAS

Inquest into the Death of Torran Jake THOMAS

Delivered on : 6 February 2019

Delivered at : Perth

Finding of : Coroner King

Recommendations :Yes

Sports Medicine Australia, St John Ambulance and all registered training organisations who provide the nationally accredited course Provide First Aid HLTAID003 consider and, if appropriate, incorporate the principles in Professor Rogers’ guide into the knowledge content of the training they deliver with respect to providing first aid for hyperthermia.

Orders/Rules : N/A

Suppression Order : N/A

Summary : The deceased was 15 years old at the time of his death. He was engaged in rugby league training on a warm summer evening when he was overcome with heat stroke. He was provided with first aid and taken by ambulance to hospital where he died from multi-organ failure.

The focus of the inquest was the appropriateness of the decision to hold the training, the quality of first aid provided to the deceased, and the appropriateness of first aid training to sports trainers with respect to heat stroke.

The Coroner found that the decision to hold the training was reasonable but that, had the persons who initially provided first aid to the deceased been trained to readily recognise and appropriately treat heat stroke in line with recent developments in this area, the deceased may have survived.  

The Coroner recommended that agencies who train first aiders to deal with heat-related illness consider changing the content of the training accordingly.

Catch Words: Hyperthermia : Heat Stroke : First Aid Training : Sports Training : Misadventure.


Last updated: 30-Apr-2019

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