Investigation to Probe Tragic American Football Death
By: CARAVAN STAFF
@CARAVAN_AUC
AUC Vice President for Enrollment Management and Student Life Khaled Dahawy announced the formation of two committees to investigate the circumstances of the tragic death of AUC student Omar Khaled last week.
The first committee will consist of the Director of Medical Services Mohaned Amin, a faculty member, a student representative and a member of the parents’ association, and will review Khaled’s injury with the help of an “external medical expert”.
The Director of Medical Services will also be part of the second committee, joined by the Director of Athletics, two faculty members and two student representatives. This committee will analyze the safety procedures for AUC student athletes.
Titans Coach Terry Bates, Senate Chair Mohamed Abou-Zeid, and Amin have declined to comment citing pending investigations by the committees.
Omar Khaled, who was a freshman and an offensive guard of the American football team AUC Titans, died on February 27 after sustaining a chest injury during a game held on campus against the Cairo Bears that day.
Mourning Khaled, the university’s Athletics Office suspended all sports activities for three days following his death.
Khaled had difficulty breathing after being struck by a helmet to the chest by a member of the opposing team, and was immediately transported to the campus clinic in a club car.
Two friends of Khaled’s, Mohamed Manaa and Mohammed Abd-El-Kareem, told The Caravan that Clinic doctor Mohamed Barakat, who was in charge of treating Khaled, diagnosed the injury as being minor bruising and prescribed a gel and a mild painkiller.
“When we suggested performing a CT scan, the doctor refused,” said Manaa.
“He was being condescending,instructing us to leave the room and telling us ‘I’m the doctor, don’t tell me how to do my job’,” he added.
However, Khaled’s condition worsened steadily and within minutes, he went into cardiac arrest.
Barakat then attempted to give Khaled CPR. After that proved unsuccessful, he called
an ambulance to transport him to the nearby Air Force Specialized Hospital. Accounting freshman Mustafa Mahmoud, who was a friend of Khaled’s, told The Caravan that the ambulance had arrived late.
Abd-El-Kareem said that “[he] was alternating with the doctor between giving Omar CPR and holding the oxygen mask to [Khaled’s] face.”
“I kept asking the doctor if Omar is fine, and he wouldn’t reply, I asked him again and he said ‘yes, he’s just fine’, I couldn’t feel a pulse, and he was not breathing,” he continued.
Staff at the Air Force Hospital failed to resuscitate Khaled, and he was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m.
His family, who arrived shortly after, proceeded to the New Cairo 1st Police Department, where they filed a police report against Barakat for negligence; Khaled’s three friends who were present throughout the incident testified against Barakat.
But Barakat tells a different version of events.
“Omar Khaled came around 5:20 p.m. in good condition – he was walking and talking with nothing apparently wrong,” Barakat said.
Then Omar complained of chest pain and fatigue.
“I measured his blood pressure and it was 110/80, very normal,” Barakat added.
The doctor then proceeded to question Omar’s friends if he suffered from a previous medical condition and whether he had a history of health problems, but no one helped.
Barakat then administered a pain reliever to Khaled and monitored his heart on an ECG machine.
Two minutes later, however, Barakat says Khaled’s heartbeat and blood pressure began to deteriorate.
“I called the ambulance and transferred him to the hospital but unfortunately his heart stopped en route,” Barakat said.
SU president Mostafa Gamal and Student Senate speaker Ahmed Amer held a meeting for students after the funeral prayer conducted on campus.
Amer asked students not to be rash with their accusations.
“[Barakat] has been working at the university clinic for five years and has saved lives, let’s not wrongly judge anyone,” he said.
“We had a meeting with [Director of Medical Services] Dr. Amin and we asked them to make sure a doctor is stationed in the field at such games rather than a nurse, and to conduct checkups on clinic equipment, making sure it’s available and up to scratch,” said Gamal.
Despite the forming investigative committees, engineering student and SU member Mahmoud Fateh created a Facebook page titled ‘Who is Responsible?!’.
The page calls for a protest on March 6, “demanding transparent and genuine answers,” from the administration and the two committees.
But this has proven to be controversial, especially among Khaled’s mourners, and while more than 100 people said that they were going to the event, some of his friends were opposed to the idea.
“The people calling for the stand on Sunday didn’t even come to the funeral or the burial,” undeclared freshman and friend of Khaled’s Sohaib Zikry, told The Caravan.
Psychology senior Nourhan El Meligy, on the other hand, was one of the students supporting the protest.
“We’re not going to chant, this is just for the committee to speed up the process,” she told The Caravan.
But Zikry and Mahmoud, among his other friends, believe the committee work is sufficient.
“The administration already declared a committee was being assembled and we should wait for at least three to four days,” Zikry said.
“If the report comes out and you don’t like what it states, then you are free to do as you wish.”
