Death Of Teenage Badminton Star Prompts Outrage Over Delayed Medical Response
HuffPost
Video from the incident shows tournament officials watching Chinese athlete Zhang Zhijie for around 40 seconds before medical help arrives.
The death of a 17-year-old badminton player has sparked outrage amid claims that officials did not act quickly enough when Chinese athlete Zhang Zhijie collapsed during the 2024 Asia Junior Championship tournament in Indonesia on Sunday.
Zhang was playing a match against Japan’s Kazuma Kawano when he fell to the ground and began convulsing, as captured in a graphic video circulating online.
The footage shows officials watching the badminton star as he appears to have a seizure for around 40 seconds before medics finally rush in to assist him.
In the video, medical help did not appear to administer CPR or use a defibrillator on the fallen athlete, but medics did swiftly put him on a stretcher to take him to an ambulance on standby.
According to officials for the Badminton Association of Indonesia who spoke to the BBC, Zhang was taken to two separate hospitals before he was found to have died of sudden cardiac arrest.
