Bedside vigil for comatose teen's anguished family

Chico Paparoa's family and friends are in anguish as he remains on the seriously ill list in hospital after his heart stopped beating during a rugby league game.
His parents, Mansell and Mary-Anne (Mete) Paparoa, of Awanui, were among about 30 relatives at Chico's bedside in the intensive care unit at Waikato Hospital in Hamilton yesterday.
The whanau mood was deeply sombre as the gifted teenage sportsman - selected for the Northland U18 rugby union team and possibly an NRL prospect with the Gold Coast Titans - lay in a coma, struck down with heart failure in what is being termed a "freak" incident.
Chico, 17, was playing halfback for Muriwhenua against Counties-Manukau in the National Maori League Tournament at Rotorua on Saturday when he was tackled and fell to the ground.
Muriwhenua coach Jim Larkin said yesterday there was "nothing malicious" about the tackle.
"Our team were the ones putting in the big hits," he said.
Chico had got up and played the ball but had collapsed during the next phase of play.
Bystanders who started heart massage on the stricken athlete and St John officers who gave him cardio-pulmonary resuscitation have been credited with keeping him alive until an ambulance arrived and its crew gave him a cardio shock.
The ambulance took Chico to Rotorua Hospital, from where he was flown to Waikato Hospital by helicopter.
Waikato Hospital doctors have declined to discuss the young man's medical condition but sudden cardiac arrest is one of the leading causes of death among adults in New Zealand, with the deceased becoming younger and more numerous each year.
Chico's parents were unavailable for comment yesterday, but his great-uncle, Brian Paparoa, of Motuti, was fretting in Napier, unhappy because the news he was getting by telephone from the hospital was "not too good".
Brian was in Hawke's Bay taking his sons to Te Aute College. One of his boys, Junior, is the same age as Chico and the pair had excelled at kapa haka and te reo competitions and had been in the Northland U13 and Te Rarawa U18 teams together.
Junior was "very cut up" to hear of his cousin's injury, Brian said.
So was rugby union coach Merv Rawiri, who coached the Northland U13 and Te Rarawa U18 teams and described Chico as an "outstanding" young man and athlete.
"When he walks into a room he can brighten it up with his smile," Mr Rawiri said while on the road to Hamilton to see him yesterday.
Along with Chico and Junior, Mr Rawiri had coached Matangi Te Wake, 16, of Panguru, who received a serious head injury while playing for the Northland U15 rugby union team last October.
"First Matangi and now Chico - I'm starting to get very anxious about that."
Mr Larkin was too "devastated" and "shattered" to have much to say to the media.
"I've never seen a boy getting hurt like that before. It was a freak accident," he said.
"That young man has so much potential. He's awesome. I'm trying to pray for him. I've got five kids of my own and I'm hoping he will come right."