Famous Ex-Rugby Player Dies After Falling Down Stairs In Front Of Son

A former rugby player in England died after falling down a flight of stairs in front of his son late last year.

Philip Lamb, of Trafford, was walking down the stairs at Sale FC Rugby Club's Corpacq Stadium with his son Chris on the eve of Dec. 18 when he lost his footing and fell, Manchester Evening News reported.

After watching a match at the rugby club that day and spending more than four hours drinking with his friends and Chris, the 70-year-old fell "around four or five steps" and landed face down on the floor, an inquest at South Manchester Coroner’s Court was told Thursday.

Staff members at the rugby club had already performed CPR on Lamb and an onsite defibrillator had also been used by the time emergency medical personnel arrived at the scene, eight minutes after they were called in.

Lamb was in cardiac arrest with no heartbeat upon the arrival of the paramedics, but they were later able to find a "very slow" pulse.

The elderly man was taken to the emergency department at Salford Royal Hospital at around 7:45 p.m.

Lamb suffered three rib fractures and two fractures to his neck, a CT scan showed.

The injuries would have likely led to issues with general movement and the "body's ability to control pulse rate and blood pressure," according to Dr. Anna Rennie, a consultant and onsite physician at the hospital.

"The trauma team felt that due to his injuries and prolonged cardiac arrest time that it would have been inevitable that he would have suffered [a] serious brain injury. A decision was then made with the family for end-of-life care," Rennie added.

Lamb was later pronounced dead at 10:50 p.m.

He was described by his doctor, Dr. Simpson, of the Bodmin Road Health Centre, as "an extremely well known and popular member of our neighborhood."

"[Lamb] was highly-regarded amongst the rugby community," Simpson added.

The Sale FC Rugby Club shared the same sentiment, saying in a statement released after Lamb's death that he "was held in such high regard from all who knew him, not only at his own club Ashton-on-Mersey."

Lamb's family did not raise any questions or concerns about the incident, according to assistant coroner Adrian Farrow.

Initial reports suggested that the rugby club's stairwell did not have handrails, but an investigation later confirmed that handrails had been "in situ at the club for quite a while."

While he had type 2 diabetes, hypertension and a history of gout, Lamb, a former landscape gardener, was “the healthiest he had been for some time,” said police coroners officer Alison Catlow.