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Kristen Cheung

William Yiu

A Hong Kong school has activated its crisis management team to provide counselling support in response to the death of an 11-year-old boy during a training run over the weekend, while the institution’s leaders are set to meet education officials.
Hong Kong Adventist Academy, a private Christian school in Sai Kung’s Clear Water Bay, confirmed on Monday that one of its students had died from heatstroke on Saturday after falling unconscious at the Tseung Kwan O Sports Ground.
The Education Bureau said on Sunday that it had immediately started providing support after learning of the death.
The school said it had activated its emergency response unit and assigned counsellors to help affected pupils and staff, and would meet bureau officials and social workers on Monday to coordinate support. It did not specify a time for the meeting.
The bureau said it would maintain close contact with the school.
The school, which enrols both local and international pupils, said it had not organised the run and that its summer break began on June 19.
Some overseas staff and pupils had already returned home, but the school would strive to provide support, it said.
On Saturday afternoon, the 11-year-old boy, surnamed Tsang, started vomiting and showed signs of heatstroke after completing a 400-metre (1,312-foot) run. His coach tried to resuscitate him before calling police at 5.11pm.
The boy was taken unconscious to Tseung Kwan O Hospital, where he was certified dead at about 6.50pm.


The boy had been attending weekly running training since April. His father said the child had no chronic illnesses.
In a reply to the South China Morning Post on Monday, Running Man Athletic Club, which the boy had joined, said: “We would like to wait for the forensic report and cooperate with the investigation at this stage. We are unable to reply to other matters.”
The Observatory recorded a temperature of 29 degrees Celsius (84.2 Fahrenheit) in Tseung Kwan O at the time, while humidity levels at its headquarters in Tsim Sha Tsui reached 82 per cent.
Lobo Louie Hung-tak, a senior lecturer at the Education University of Hong Kong’s health and physical education department, said he believed the boy’s death was not directly caused by heatstroke.
“According to worldwide statistics, the probability of death caused by sudden cardiac arrest is one in 100,000 cases,” he said.
“It is rare for someone so young to suffer sudden death due to environmental factors. Apparently, he had not been running for hours, as it was reported he only ran 400 metres.”
He said that clarification was needed on what the boy did two hours before training started at 4pm, as he had reportedly arrived at the sports ground at around 1.30pm.
“If he was not engaging in any other strenuous gross motor activities from 1.30pm and only ran that 400 metres, his death theoretically should not be linked to the hot weather,” Louie said.
“We are talking about just a few minutes of running. I doubt his core body temperature could have spiked from 37 degrees to 41 degrees at the time.”
Loue said another factor was family medical history, including looking beyond the parents to see if the boy’s grandparents had suffered from heart disease in their forties and fifties.
He noted that while indoor and outdoor running clubs had surged in popularity in recent years, it was worth examining whether they had adequate first-aid equipment, such as automated external defibrillators, and whether coaches had the necessary medical knowledge.


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School activates crisis team after boy dies from heatstroke on weekend run

Hong Kong Adventist Academy has assigned counsellors to help affected students and staff. Photo: Sun Yeung

The tragedy took place at the Tseung Kwan O Sports Ground. Photo: Sun Yeung

The boy was declared dead at Tseung Kwan O Hospital on Saturday evening. Photo: Winson Wong

Boy, 11, dies after showing signs of heatstroke at Hong Kong sports ground

Tseung Kwan O Sports Ground. Photo: Handout

Hong Kong expands heat stress monitoring to better protect outdoor workers

Hong Kong has expanded heat stress monitoring to include data from eight additional sites in an attempt to better protect outdoor workers. Photo: Jelly Tse

A construction site in Central. Last year, the Labour Department logged 31 reports of workers suffering from heat stress at work. Photo: Jelly Tse

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Hong Kong Adventist Academy confirms one of its students died from heatstroke on Saturday


Hong Kong Adventist Academy confirms one of its students died from heatstroke on Saturday.


Accidents and personal safety in Hong Kong

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School activates crisis team after boy dies from heatstroke on weekend run

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Hong Kong Adventist Academy confirms one of its students died from heatstroke on Saturday

Hong Kong Adventist Academy confirms one of its students died from heatstroke on Saturday