Teenager killed by bad tackle in Sunday league football match as mother watched from touchline

A teenager died while his mother watched from the touchline after a bad challenge at a Sunday league football, an inquest has heard.

Luca Campanaro suffered a fatal neck injury while playing in goal for his under-15s team in December.

The 14-year-old, who dreamed of playing in the Premier League, was being watched by his mother Jo Campanaro and his grandfather when an opposition player ran into him while he attempted to slide for the football at the game in west London, the hearing was told.

The "freak accident" caused extensive brain damage and doctors told his family he would not survive the injury. He died in hospital the following day.

His mother told how his organs were transplanted into four patients, including a baby.

Luca, of Aylesbury, Bucks, had been playing for his team Bedgrove Dynamos when the accident happened.

The team had just been promoted and were playing away in Hillingdon.

Ms Campanaro told West London Coroner's Court that his team were losing and the second half became "more aggressive" with Luca making a number of great saves for his team.

Describing the moment her son was fatally injured, she said: "Luca was running for the ball and slid to clear the ball. But the opponent did not slow down and continued to run towards Luca even though he was sliding onto the floor. The player was running at him to show him he was boss, but he caused an injury no-one could have foreseen.

"When the collision happened there were several shouts as it was clear the boy had unnecessarily gone hard on Luca. I have watched him play football hundreds of times over the years and I have never reacted the way I did that day. When Luca was back it was as if he had no knowledge at all.

"He tried to sit, but fell immediately backwards again. My dad ran over and asked for an ambulance to be called. It was clearly some sort of head injury. Luca was making a grunting and moaning noise that will stay with me forever. There was blood around his lips. At no point did he make any effort to communicate after the collision."

She said an air ambulance was called after paramedics from a normal ambulance said he had suffered "a serious head injury and he was not in a good way."

She added: "Luca was still making that awful noise and did not seem to be responsive. I was allowed to give him a kiss before he left in the air ambulance and I bent down and looked in his eyes and something told me he was gone at that point.

"I had a feeling: 'I'm going to bring a different boy home', I thought he was going to be permanently brain damaged. I never thought I wouldn't be taking him home."

Refusing to blame the player who tackled him, she said: "I'm not singling that boy out. At 14 they have got hormones they all do it. Yes, it was uncomfortable what I saw but not to the extent of what I saw later. I don't think there's anything more we could have done."

Luca's grandad, Gerard Conroy, who was also watching the match from the sidelines, was an RAF nurse for 40 years and told the inquest he blamed himself for not doing enough.

He said: "What happened to Luca just didn't make any sense to me. The injury when he was there, when I got there he was clenched at the mouth. He was obviously having a seizure. I didn't have any equipment with me. I couldn't do a proper assessment, but his pupils were sluggish. I checked his skull and there was no obvious injury there. There was some blood just on his lip.

"I blame myself for not being able to save my grandson. The symptoms didn't conform to anything in my 40-odd years that I had ever seen."

Assistant coroner Dr Sean Cummings said medical records from Luca's GP did not reveal anything "of significance" and that a paramedic statement from the London Ambulance Service repeated what he had heard from Luca's mum.

A post-mortem was never carried out because of Luca's decision to donate his organs, the inquest heard.

A statement from the Royal Free Hospital confirmed a CT scan showed an "extensive subarachnoid haemorrhage" and "injury to the internal carotid artery".

The Coroner said: "In summary there was extensive bleeding inside and he had a bruise on the left side of the brain. Together with the splitting of artery this was causing a blockage. This caused widespread damage within Lucas' brain. It was decided this was an event that couldn't be survived and he was transferred to paediatric intensive care for palliative treatment and a decision regarding organ donation."

Recording a verdict of accidental death, the Coroner said: "Luca was playing at Harefield Football Club and he was accidentally struck in the neck by another player and that resulted in injuries to Luca which he didn’t survive."

He told Luca's mum and grandad: "Both of you witnessed a catastrophe and then you lost your boy in a matter of hours. In term of Luca's inquest then, after looking at the information and on the information I have available to me, accepting that there's a possibility there may be some other underlying issue, on the information I have I'm going to record that Lucas died as a result of an accident.

"I'm terribly sorry. You are very brave. Reading the reports its wasn't salvageable. It was just a freak accident and you used all your skills. I really don't think you should blame yourself at all."

Paying tribute to her son after the hearing, Ms Campanaro said Luca was a "typical 14-year-old boy" who "lived life to the max".

She said: "His passion was to one day play for a Premier League team. I always described him as a gentle giant. He had a lovely nature about him. He was very kind and always had an ear to listen to others. He was not afraid to voice his opinion and state when he didn’t agree with something.

"He was by no means perfect and knew exactly how to push my buttons but it was always resolved with an apology and and ‘I love you’ which we always said every day without fail. These were in fact the last words we said to each other. I was extremely proud of him. He could not wait to get out into the world and starting working as he did in the school holidays.

"He had an amazing relationship with his grandad - they were each other’s world. Luca was extremely popular and had a lot of friends with over 700 people attending his funeral.

She said she immediately told doctors her son would want his organs to be donated after remembering a conversation they had had just months before the tragic accident.

She said the topic came up when her family were watching Channel 5 Documentary Gift of Life three months before the tragedy.

She said: "We said randomly to him 'how do you feel about organ donation?' and he immediately said 'no, that's weird'. I have got MS and so I said to him 'what if someone could give me something to make me better?' I left that with him for 10 minutes. Then I came back to him and he said, 'Okay, I get your point, I think it's something I would do.'

"He made that decision and I just followed that child's wishes. Just knowing that he has helped others is amazing. We had forgotten about it, but after the accident I approached the hospital about it. We were blessed to have him for 14 years. There are people hopefully out there that have got a new lease of life because of him and that's a fantastic legacy to leave. It's not a total waste."

Additional reporting by SWNS