The parents of San Diego High School's star quarterback, Khari Kimbrough, are looking for answers. They want to know why their son was laying in pain for 30 minutes after a gruesome injury on the football field Friday night.
"God forbid, a young man had a head problem or neck or even just stopped breathing or collapsed on the field, it probably would have been much, much worse." Keir Kimbrough, Khari's father said. Keir is also the football team's head coach.
Kimbrough was looking for an open receiver and decided to tuck the ball and run to pick up yards, when he was tackled by an opposing player. Kimbrough's left tibia and fibula were broken.
Paramedics from an ambulance on stand-by at the game rushed over to help, but apparently did not have the equipment need to treat the injury and their ambulance's battery was dead. Someone on the field rushed to their SUV and drove it onto the field to try to jump start the ambulance, but with no success.
Eventually school officials called 911 and San Diego Firefighters rushed to the school, but only after Kimbrough lay in pain on the open field for 30 minutes.
The ambulance company, Balboa Ambulance, said their equipment was fully functional.
"The ambulance and all equipment were fully operational," said Jay Hoffman with Balboa. "It was unfortunate, that a bystander attempted to assist by operating an emergency vehicle without having any knowledge of how to do so."
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CIF officials who oversee high school athletics say they will be looking into the incident.
"We need to get clarification ourselves on what actually transpired," said CIF Commissioner Jerry Schniepp. "If there was a delay in the response why? Did the ambulance driver have the proper equipment? Did he follow their own procedures in the contract with us and that is something we're looking at."
Kimbrough is one of the best players in the county with scholarship interest from Nevada and Fresno State.
"He is driven young man," said his father Keir. "He'll come back bigger, faster, and stronger."
Kimbrough's doctors say it was a clean break and expect him to make a full recovery.
After hearing threats coming from the sidelines and from people in the stands the game was postponed.
No word on when or if the game will be replayed.
