Young player in coma

A talented young Northland sportsman is in a coma after a freak on-field accident stopped his heart during a rugby league game.
Seventeen-year-old Chico Paparoa, from Awanui, is in a serious condition in Waikato Hospital's intensive care unit at Hamilton.
He was playing halfback for the Muriwhenua team against Counties-Manukau in the National Maori League Tournament in Rotorua on Saturday when he was tackled and fell to the ground.
Muriwhenua team manager Shirley Neho said the tackle happened about 15 minutes into the team's first game of the two-day tournament.
Chico got to his feet, played the ball but then collapsed, she said.
Bystanders rushed on to the field and started heart massage on the young league star. Two St John officers also helped until an ambulance arrived and took Chico to Rotorua Hospital where, after tests, he was flown to Waikato Hospital by helicopter.
His team members visited Chico in hospital yesterday and said karakia (prayers) as they stood around his bed with members of his family.
"The young guys are devastated to see one of their mates like this," Mrs Neho said. "It's really knocked the team. It's a huge shock for us all."
The Muriwhenua team played on in the tournament and made the final before losing.
A Rotorua St John spokesman said the heart massage started by people on the sideline had given Chico a chance of survival.
"When ambulance staff arrived the young player was given a cardio shock to get his heart started. He was given a cardio shock again in the ambulance before getting to hospital," he said.
"Starting CPR (cardio-pulmonary resuscitation) as soon as possible is important and gives people a fighting chance."
Along with league, Chico is also a talented rugby union player, having been named in the Northland Rugby Union's Elite 40 list which is used as talent identification for Northland age grade representative teams.
In July, he was named in the New Zealand area schools rugby team after the Northland team won the national tournament. Chico is also a keen basketball player and waka ama paddler.
His injury is the second major on-field accident involving a young Far North rugby player in the past year.
Last October, 15-year-old Matangi Te Wake, of Panguru, received a serious head injury while playing for the Northland Under-15 rugby union team against a New South Wales Country Under-15 side near Kawakawa.
Matangi was put into an induced coma while surgeons cleared fluids putting pressure on his brain. He was partly paralysed when he came to, but responded to 10 months of treatment in Starship Hospital and the Wilson Home and is now back at Panguru, attending school part-time, not yet fully recovered but keen to return to the rugby field.