Emergency Surgery Saves Frida Wallberg
By Joe Calvey
In Stockholm, Sweden a prize fight Friday June 14, 2013 between two world class female super featherweights nearly cost one her life. Emergency brain surgery after doctors induced a coma have saved Frida Wallberg’s life thus far. For now she is sedated but able to speak for a few moments from her hospital bed at the Karolinska Hospital .
Boxing has inherent dangers. The purpose of a boxing commission is to significantly limit those dangers. Whatever type of commission Sweden has it needs to be fixed.
Sweden apparently has a long way to go to catch up with protecting boxers. If they want a great example they need to look to Texas. Regardless of what some boxing judges have scored with their eyes wide open in the past Texas has an outstanding program in place to protect boxers.
With one minute remaining at the end of an 8 round bout Sweden’s most decorated female boxer Wallberg was dropped by Diana Prazak. Throughout the fight Wallberg was backed up by the Australian and was subjected to repeated head shots. When the action resumed in the 8th after Wallberg got to her feet Prazak delivered several more head shots in quick succession and dropped Wallberg again.
In Texas the ringside doctor would have been climbing into the ring as the referee’s arms were waving an end to the bout. That didn’t happen in this fight. In Texas the referee would have restrained Walberg not allowing her to even sit up. That didn’t happen in Sweden as referee Bela Florian immediately helped Wallberg to her feet.
Reading a somewhat disjointed translated interview Florian gave after the fight to a Hungarian website gave me the impression Florian was shifting all of the blame to the doctor and the medical staff, that he had no fault and was tired of answering questions about the fight. Florian insists that 10 minutes elapsed between the knockout and when the emergency crew began to administer oxygen. The translation also implied Florian stated he is able to see differences in women when they are knocked out.
Texas, like other states has a medical protocol in place. The doctor takes charge of the downed fighter. Nothing happens in the ring again until the doctor says so. What then happens is the doctor examines the boxer and questions the boxer to determine their level of injury. This didn’t happen in Sweden.
In Texas if the doctor is comfortable with the initial examination of the boxer and satisfied with the answers their questions, usually simple memory questions like what round was that they will allow the boxer to move from the floor to a stool. That didn’t happen in Sweden.
On the stool the examination continues and the questions may continue. The doctor is looking for key signs of brain injury such as rigid posturing, confusion and an inability to focus. None of this occurred in Sweden.
What happened in Sweden put Wallberg’s life at risk. After helping Wallberg to her feet and walking her to her corner she was met by the ringside doctor, Dr. Robert Ludwig. Here is why Sweden needs a massive overhaul of their medical protocol. The doctor briefly looked at her bloody nose and then he hugged Wallberg.
No examination. No questions. Instead he hugs the boxer known as the Golden Girl for her long blond locks and movie star looks. He hugged her! Within moments he was replaced with a corner man. Seconds later Wallberg was draped over the ropes. She was bleeding inside of her skull. A subdural hematoma was pooling her blood in the linings of her brain and her skull.
The Swedish telecast cuts away at this point. When it returns Wallberg is seated on a stool with Prazak’s trainer, former undefeated world champion from the Netherlands Lucia Rijker kneeling in front of Wallberg. The camera at this point catches Wallberg in a classic brain injury pose with her left arm sticking straight out to the side. While it may have been only to steady herself on the stool it is one of the tell tale signs doctors and trained medical staff look for. Rijker described holding Wallberg’s lifeless body and the moaning she heard which later caused her to breakdown and cry.
Dr. Ludwig is no where to be seen. Not in the ring, not on the ring apron. Bjorn Rosengren who heads the Swedish commission governing boxing needs to be fired as he insisted everything was done according to Sweden’s very strict rules.
Apparently those rules include the doctor leaving the ring. It was former champion Rijker who insisted the doctor return to the ring according to several media reports. Wallberg was finally given oxygen and placed on a stretcher and transported to the hospital.
Sweden's minister of culture and sport, Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth, has said that the rules for professional boxing are under review while Green Party politician Fredrik Persson is calling for a total ban of boxing in Sweden.
Contained in those media reports are three miserable items as well. First was that this incident will hurt women’s boxing when the concern should be to better train the ringside officials to prevent the mistakes that occurred at this event.
Then the blame was being pointed at Wallberg herself with innuendo regarding her training being very hard in the two weeks leading up to the fight as she had sparred with male boxers in Spain and the possibility she had cut a lot of weight. It is uncertain who planted the last two items in the media.
Wallberg, 30, had an extensive amateur career and was 11- 0 and the WBC Super Featherweight Champion entering the bout. Her professional career began in Feb. 2004 then began a five year gap beginning in 2005. In the last 33 months Wallberg had boxed only 38 rounds while her opponent Prazak fought 86 rounds in the last 38 months recording 8 knockouts according to Boxrec.com. This fight was reported to have been promoted by her manager and boyfriend Robert Stridsberg who Rijker described as inexperienced.
Stridsberg has kept friends, family and fans updated on Wallberg’s condition via Facebook as she slowly recovers. Wallberg took in life’s simple pleasures such as feeding rabbits with her daughter Bella or playing tennis with her. God willing Wallberg will return to full health not for the purpose of boxing but rather for Bella.
Every boxer who enters the ring deserves the utmost in onsite emergency medical care as possible. Ongoing training and continuing education for emergency personnel and physicians must be incorporated into Emergency Action Plans. No one should ever lose sight of who the boxers are. They are mothers, fathers, sons and daughters, husbands, wives and friends. And they are as embodied by Lucia Rijker quick thinking actions post fight toward Frida Wallberg, compassionate.