The absence of an ambulance was a critical factor that denied the late Fijian boxer Ubayd Haider the chance to receive urgent medical attention when he collapsed at a boxing promotion in Nadi last year.<\/p>\n
The Fijian Sports Minister Jese Saukuru made that revelation in parliament on Tuesday, six months after the late Haider’s death and the completion of a Commission of Inquiry.<\/p>\n
However, Saukuru’s revelation has been condemned by Haider’s older brother, who is also a boxer, Sebastian Singh.<\/p>\n
In a video message on his Facebook page, Singh questioned Saukuru’s claims made in parliament.<\/p>\n
“Investigations haven’t been completed, Saukuru,” he said.<\/p>\n
“The team that was set up for doing investigation are still waiting for the promoter to get into the country.”<\/p>\n
The promoter is Australia-based Freddy Chand.<\/p>\n
Singh said that Haider’s family is going through a tough time and claimed something sinister is happening.<\/p>\n
“These people want to sweep everything under the carpet,” he said via a text on Messenger.<\/p>\n
The Commission of Inquiry, led by lawyer Ed Wainiqolo, was set up to investigate the circumstances surrounding the program.<\/p>\n
The team handed in their report two weeks ago.<\/p>\n
While confirming that the team cannot reveal their findings, Wainiqolo said that they did not talk to promoter Chand.<\/p>\n
“No, we didn’t interview Freddy,” Wainiqolo confirmed.<\/p>\n
“He had his reasons, genuine, and legitimate per se.”<\/p>\n
Saukuru said the absence of an ambulance was the only safety protocol that Chand, of the South Pacific Boxing Promotions, did not follow.<\/p>\n
He said that turned our to be a critical factor in Haider’s condition worsening, according to the state broadcaster\u00a0FBC<\/i>.<\/p>\n
“In light of protocols and response, the referee acted according to international standards, stopping the fight under the TKO rule and medical personal attended to Mr Ubaid Haider immediately,” Saukuru stated.<\/p>\n
“However, reports reflect the lack of an onsite ambulance, which delayed critical care.”<\/p>\n
Saukuru had reviewed the findings inquiry and confirmed that all other procedures – from Haider’s pre-fight medical checks to the stoppage of the match – met international standards.<\/p>\n
He said the Commission of Inquiry has made a number of recommendations going forward.<\/p>\n
The recommendations include: stricter medical screenings before fights, especially for high-risk bouts, mandatory brain scans after any knockout or TKO, and better training and education for boxing trainers, referees, and medical staff.<\/p>\n
Saukuru described Haider’s death as a major loss for the national sports community and said the ministry is committed to preventing similar tragedies in the future.<\/p>\n
Haider passed away nine days after an induced coma, having lost the fight earlier by technical knockout to Australia’s Runqi Zhou in a IBO Asia Pacific Super Featherweight title fight at King Charles Park.<\/p>\n
He was rushed to Nadi Hospital by his team members in a private car before being transferred to Lautoka Aspen Hospital.<\/p>\n
Inquiry team lead Wainiqolo had told RNZ Pacific earlier that they had investigated all stakeholders involved in the program and were waiting on Chand.<\/p>\n
He said they interviewed around 20 personnel.<\/p>\n
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The absence of an ambulance was a critical factor that denied the late Fijian boxer Ubayd Haider the chance to receive urgent medical attention when he collapsed at a boxing promotion in Nadi last year. The Fijian Sports Minister Jese Saukuru made that revelation in parliament on Tuesday, six months after the late Haider’s death […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":13433,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiji-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13432"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13434,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13432\/revisions\/13434"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}