The wife of a man who fell to his death at a Canadian Football League game in Winnipeg said Tuesday that her husband drank daily.
Testifying at an inquest into the death of Andrew Szabo, Barbara Szabo said her husband had about five drinks every day but it never interfered with his work or other aspects of his life.
Andrew Szabo, 52, was sitting with his wife in the 13th row of the north-end stands at Canad Inns Stadium during a Blue Bombers game on Aug. 4, 2006.
According to his widow, he had a half-ounce of rye at home and a couple of beers at the start of the game. She also noted her husband had eaten no dinner and only half a sandwich for lunch, so there wasn’t much food in his system to absorb the alcohol.
It was still near the beginning of the game when Szabo stood up and gestured toward a friend to meet him at the bottom of the stairs, Barbara testified. His foot caught on the bench in front of him and he tumbled down the stairs, through a railing and plummeted several metres to the concrete below, Barbara said.
Szabo was taken to Grace General Hospital, where Barbara said staff said her husband had no broken bones.
But Szabo’s condition worsened and he was transferred to the Health Sciences Centre, where he died the day after the accident.
Barbara said two doctors took her into a small private room “and that’s when they told me he had passed away,” she testified, wiping away tears.
‘Multiple traumatic injuries’
The province’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Thambirajah Balachandra, said in a March 2008 news release announcing the inquest that Szabo had “multiple traumatic injuries.”
Szabo’ blood-alcohol level was also determined to be more than double the legal driving limit.
Doctors at the Health Sciences Centre diagnosed Szabo with a broken pelvis, broken collarbone, a punctured lung and a fractured neck, Balachandra told the inquest on Tuesday.
He testified the autopsy revealed internal bleeding caused by the fractured pelvis is what ultimately killed Szabo. But Balachandra also described that injury as notoriously hard to detect.
However, a thorough physical examination would reveal a fracture, he testified.
“If you hold the hips like this … the patient will scream,” Balachandra said, moving his hands in a squeezing motion.
The inquest, which is scheduled for four weeks, will look into what could be done to prevent similar falls at the stadium.
It will also consider “the appropriateness of taking seriously injured patients to hospital other than the major trauma centre in Winnipeg,” as well as the management of his care at the Grace, Balachandra said in the March 2008 news release.
It is expected that between 30 and 50 witnesses will testify, including witnesses at the football game, health care professionals and others