By Chelsea Cook
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
ORLANDO, Fla. — An Atlanta woman who died Tuesday after she was knocked unconscious during an amateur kickboxing tournament at an Orlando hotel wasn’t taken to a hospital for an hour, a kickboxing coach at the event said.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday that Adrienne Simmons, 34, of Midtown was participating in an International Kickboxing Federation-sponsored match Sunday. During the final round of a three-round fight against Lindsay Scheer, Simmons received a left hook that knocked her out. The fight was stopped immediately.
Simmons was treated for two days at Orlando Regional Medical Center before dying Tuesday. A sheriff’s office spokeswoman said the death is considered an accident.
Eric Haycraft, Scheer’s coach, said a doctor who was an expert on head injuries and a neurosurgeon rushed to Simmons in the ring after the blow. She regained consciousness and even sat up to say she felt she was going to be sick.
“We thought it was a normal KO,” Haycraft said. “When we go in the back, we saw things were worse. Locker rooms were sealed off. They made an announcement over the [public address] for the [hotel] to call 911.”
Haycraft said there was no ambulance on call at the fight.
“I’ve been a fighter, coach and trainer in this business for 20 years, and there is always an ambulance at every fight, professional or amateur,” Haycraft said.
Florida’s WFTV reported that Steve Fossom, president of IKF, said he arranged for an ambulance to be on call, but it was not present at the fight. E-mails and calls to Fossom were not immediately returned.
According to Haycraft and the victim’s boyfriend, Chike Ajuda of Atlanta, it took an hour to get Simmons to the hospital. Although they both said she was airlifted from the hotel, a hospital spokeswoman said Simmons arrived by ground transportation. Messages to Orange County Fire and Rescue were not returned.
“There was no paramedics or ambulance on site, which there should be at any fight. This was a huge fight with 200 people --- a huge capacity for something to go wrong of this nature,” Ajuda told WFTV. “There was no one on site, so it took, from what I understand, 30 minutes before she was placed on a gurney and ready for transport, but then she was taken by air, which took 20 minutes. So it was about an hour before she was prepped for surgery.
“Time is always a critical factor in these types of injuries.”
Nick Dekay, owner of Unit 2 Fitness in Midtown, said Simmons trained and worked as an instructor at the gym about a year ago.
“She was a very talented martial artist. She was very stubborn, and wouldn’t give up no matter what,” Dekay said.
Copyright 2010 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution