Duffy feared for his life
The 18-year-old Everton defender had undergone life-saving surgery on Friday night after lacerating his liver and suffering massive loss of blood following an accidental collision in a training game between the Irish senior and junior sides at Gannon Park in Malahide.
Team doctor Alan Byrne described the improvement in the player’s condition as “great news”, adding that Shane, who had feared he was going to die from his injuries, was sitting up and reading the newspaper after a peaceful night’s sleep.
“The backroom staff went in to visit him yesterday,” Byrne revealed. “And the first thing he said was ‘I hope I wasn’t too much trouble.’ That’s typical of Shane. We joked about a few things.”
However, the closeness of the player’s brush with death on Friday night was made graphically clear at the Irish squad’s training base in Malahide yesterday as the team doctor provided more details to the media of the battle which had been waged to save the young Derry man’s life.
Likening the injury to something you would see in a “high velocity blunt trauma traffic accident”, Byrne revealed there were fears that Duffy would not survive the ambulance journey from Malahide to the Mater and then again at casualty in the hospital when he “crashed” – meaning his blood pressure dropped to a dangerously low level.
Said Byrne: “John O’Byrne (the FAI orthopaedic surgeon) rang me a couple of times from the ambulance and he thought he was going to die.
“You can’t replace the loss of fluid and blood. He had lines going in everywhere trying to maintain his blood pressure.”
At the hospital, it was determined that Duffy had incurred a hole in the hepatic artery which supplies blood to the liver.
“There were 3.6 litres of blood in his abdomen that had leaked from this artery,” the doctor explained. “And he had received over 20 units of blood. So you are pouring it in one way and it’s leaking out the other. There was a sudden drop in his blood pressure and he very nearly arrested.
“All you can do at that stage is put in as much fluid as you can as you are trying to keep the circulation going to the brain which is the vital thing. He probably lost two thirds of his blood. This was serious stuff.”
That Duffy escaped with his life is all that matters in the Irish camp just now, with Byrne suggesting that, while it’s hoped he will return to football, it’s too early to say when that might be.
“I don’t know, is the honest answer to that,” he said. “I think it is agreed between everybody that he takes his time. A lot has changed in 36 hours but there’s the healing of his wound and (how this all affects him) psychologically. Shane was very frightened and he thought he was going to die, actually. We are going to take our lead from (Mater hospital surgeon) Gerry McEntee and Gerry is going to liaise with Everton in terms of that. First, Shane needs to get back to his family and recover from a huge trauma.”
Byrne described the Goodison Park club as “magnificent and hugely supportive” since the incident. Chairman Bill Kenwright has been in touch with the Irish doctor by phone, manager David Moyes rang Shane’s father Brian and the club’s team doctor and physio flew in to Dublin on Saturday to be close to the player before returning to Liverpool yesterday.
Duffy’s injury is regarded as being extremely rare in the context of team sports.
“Everton looked for some literature on it,” said Byrne. “They searched rugby league, rugby union, NFL football, Aussie Rules, soccer and GAA. And they could not find no published articles. So it is a very unusual one.”
The life and death drama began 35 minutes into the training game on Friday night when Duffy and Adrian Walsh collided in the box as the Carrick United keeper leaped forward to punch clear with both fists.
It was an entirely accidental coming together, with both players only having eyes for the ball, but Walsh’s knees caught Duffy heavily on the chest leaving the player prostrate on the turf.
He managed briefly to get to his knees but, in evident distress, collapsed to the ground again.
After lengthy treatment in the penalty area from the FAI medical team, the stricken player was removed from the pitch by stretcher, an oxygen mask clamped to his face, and then rushed by an on-site ambulance to the Mater Hospital.
“He was accompanied by his father Brian who had been watching the game. At that point, none of the players or management staff realised the extent of Duffy’s injury and the game resumed, eventually resulting in a 2-0 win for the senior team.”
However, team doctor Byrne revealed yesterday that he knew almost immediately he’d reached Duffy in the penalty area that his condition was worryingly out of the ordinary.
“I made my mind up probably after about 30 seconds,” he said. “I just knew this was odd. I wasn’t sure of the nature. He was in so much pain; I needed to know where the pain was. After a while he was able to say it was here (points to chest): the lower breastbone. You think: what’s the worst case scenario? Then I noticed a bruise under his lower abdomen where your liver is. I knew we were in trouble. I knew we needed to get him to hospital quickly.”
At the Mater, Gerry McEntee, the former Meath Gaelic football star, performed emergency surgery which effectively saved Duffy’s life and by midnight his condition had been stabilised.
Said Byrne: “I cannot describe what it felt like when we got the call from Gerry McEntee to say that the surgery had been successful. We were with Shane’s dad Brian and his uncle and cousin and we were jumping around, it was like winning the World Cup. In fact, it was better than that.”
And, movingly, Shane’s father Brian said: “I hugged the surgeon and cried when he told me the good news about the operation. When Trapattoni, John Delaney and Marco Tardelli were gathering (at the hospital) I really feared I was going to lose my son.”
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