Questions unanswered for grieving Hawke's Bay mum after coroner's findings released

Bereaved Napier mum Mary Pakoti knows nothing could have saved her daughter when she collapsed after a rugby league game last year.

But she still has questions about what caused the head injuries from which Katiana Pakoti Waikato died at the age of 22, and doesn't believe it had happened in the game she'd just played for "my old club" Tamatea Arikinui, or on that day.

Leaving behind toddler son Klyzhae, Katiana died when her mother consented to life support being terminated at Hawke's Bay Hospital on the night of August 27 last year, a few hours after complaining of a headache and collapsing as she walked from the field towards "baby brother" Nathan after a Rugby League Hawke's Bay women's game against Dannevirke Tigers at the Hawke's Bay Regional Sports Park.

Pakoti was speaking at home last night in Maraenui after hearing of the release of a report by Coroner Tim Scott saying Katiana died from a head injury "sustained while playing a game of rugby league," and that it was likely she had hit her head on the ground in a tackle, some undetermined time before she collapsed.

"There is nothing to suggest that the circumstances of the injury were caused by or contributed to in any way by illegal or unsporting play," Scott stressed.

"Sadly, the game of rugby league along with many other commonly engaged-in sporting activities has a risk factor about it."

Mary Pakoti believes her daughter may have had a recent pre-existing head injury and wants to ask more questions of the coroner, although a post mortem she said she would have wanted was not of the cultural beliefs on her Cook Islands side of the family.

She said that on the day nothing could have saved her daughter, who just weeks earlier had staged the tangi for her own father, Robert Waikato, at her home, also in Maraenui.

Katiana went to primary school at Peterhead in Flaxmere before a short time at Flaxmere College, prior to leaving for Southland where she went to Menzies College in Wyndham.

She had only just taken up rugby league again, having previously played for Omahu Huia.

Reporting on the inquiry into the circumstances of the death, the coroner said: "It is not totally clear what happened, but as best as I can determine Katiana got possession of the ball and then was either tackled and fell backwards or (less likely) stumbled and fell backwards."

"She hit the back of her head hard on the ground," he said. "She was able to get up, but could not continue playing."

She was able to walk from the field and across the car park before she collapsed.

Team manager Evelyn Rapaea, a registered nurse, was reported as saying she saw the player leave the field and heard her say she had a sore head.

She and others hurried to help Waikato, and an ambulance was called, but it was not until she collapsed that Rapaea realised how serious it was, the coroner was told.

Waikato was taken to Hawke's Bay Hospital in Hastings, but died at about 8.50pm.

The medical cause of death, determined by Dr Matthew Bailey, was a subdural haemorrhage, as the result of the rugby league injury.

Mary Pakoti, who had also played in the past for Tamatea Arikinui and remained a member of the club's pool team, was concerned that she had not seen the coroner's report before it was released publicly.

She learned of its release only when daughter-in-law Herena Petera showed her a news-site report.