Family and friends are saddened following the death of a matriculant who was involved in a freak accident during a school cricket match.
Retshegofetse Sennelo, a matric pupil at Krugersdorp Highschool in Gauteng sadly lost his life after he collided with a teammate during their school’s participation in a cricket match at the Christian Brothers’ College in Boksburg.
According to the school statement, both learners suffered injuries and were taken to hospital, but one of them was treated for a concussion under his parents’ care. Retshegofetse, however, was taken to Netcare Sunward Park Hospital where he underwent an emergency operation.
“After undergoing an emergency operation at Sunward Park, the surgeons could not stop the internal bleeding, and Retshegofetse passed away,” the school confirmed.
In conversation with SABC News, family spokesperson Joe Mabuela, explained that the incident occurred while boy pupils reached out to catch a ball. It was after the collision that the medical team confirmed that the incident was more serious than initially thought, which resulted in them being rushed to hospital.
“They took him through the scan. At first, they thought it was a brain issue because the information they got was that it was the collision of heads, and the other boy had head trauma, but he was fine. So, what happened is that they did the first scan on the head, and they said there wasn’t much and they did the body scan on the chest where he was complaining about the pain, and they discovered that it was internal bleeding and there was liver rapture,” Joe explained.
The family is awaiting the postmortem results to get a better understanding of what led to his death.
The school will be having a memorial service in his memory on Thursday, with his funeral expected to take place on Saturday.
Meanwhile, counseling will be given to friends and teammates who have been affected by the tragedy.
