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Episode details

World Service,5 mins

Was Rowan's death preventable?

The Real Story

Available for over a year

Seventeen year old Rowan Stringer was captain of her school rugby team in Ottawa, Canada. In May 2013 she suffered three concussions in less than a week, and died. An inquest in 2015 found that the cause of her death was "second impact syndrome", where the head suffers a second blow before a first concussion has fully healed. Her family are now urging the provincial parliament to adopt "Rowan's Law", to provide greater education about concussions in sport. James Coomarasamy spoke to Rowan's father, Gordon.

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