Fighter in Washington state dies from kidney failure

Jameston Lee-Yaw, 47, competed at an event on Saturday in Abderdeen, Washington’s SouthShore Mall, passed out post fight, and was hospitalized with kidney failure. He died in the hospital on Monday.

Promoter Scott Bean told KBKW-AM radio the man had finished his fight, and was in the changing room as the next fight was wrapping up when the collapsed.

“He was exhausted,” began Bean. “I’m the promoter, so the first thing I did was asked him was if he was OK, and he actually looked up at me and smiled and said ‘Yeah I’m just tired man.’

“His corner guys, and his team helped him up and they took him back to the dressing room and they figured he was OK. He wasn’t really showing any signs that he wasn’t OK. But my nurse insisted that she go back with him.

I hear my sister from the backroom saying ‘he’s not breathing get Shihan’ and I don’t even know how I heard that – I was all the way in the front of the building,” said Bean. “I ran back there, my sister; she’s a nurse for us that night, and I asked him if he was ok and I got no response. I checked for his pulse and I told her I had no pulse and she told me to start compressions and I did.”

An ambulance was called and took him to Community Hospital. Staff there reportedly told the fighter’s ex wife that without the CPR, he would have died in the dressing room. He was transferred to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle on Sunday, and died on Monday.

The medical examiner’s office attributed the fighter’s death to kidney failure.

Jerome Lee-Yaw, Jameston’s brother, said he did not believe Jameston’s death was a result of the fight, but as far as he knew, his brother was healthy. It’s a shock to everybody; we never saw this coming, he said. We’re trying to come to terms to it.

Yee-Law’s ex-wife said a doctor at Harborview told her Jameston’s death was caused by kidney failure. She said she was never aware of Jameston having problems with his kidneys in the past.

When I’ve taken him to the hospital before, they’ve never said anything about kidney conditions, she said. … It happened so fast. Nothing was wrong before (the fight).

A doctor at Harborview said it was hard to say what caused Jameston’s kidney failure in the first place, said Linda.

The state of Washington has been regulating amateur MMA since January 1, 2013. Unusually, Washington recognizes three levels of sanctioning for amateur MMA events:

Under a training facility license;

Overseen by a licensed sanctioning organization; or

Overseen by the Department of Licensing.

Bean, who also runs Twin Dragons Martial Arts reported that the Harbor Beatdown was conducted with a training facility license. As such, the training facility has to be licensed, but no reporting and notification is required for suspensions or bout results.

Bean also said that the card consisted of submission grappling and kickboxing bouts, with a single MMA contest. Bean noted that contrary to media reports, the deceased athlete had been in an amateur kickboxing bout, not MMA.

Bean posted on social networks that the cause was a pre-existing condition. It is crucial that this tragedy be investigated thoroughly. What did the pre-fight screening consist of? Was he cleared to fight by his physician? There is no suggestion to date that the promoter was not in compliance with state regulations, indeed, he appears to have exceeded them. However, if the current regulations allow mixed martial arts without an MD present, then they need to be reconsidered.

There are many cases of kidney failure in combat sports due to weight cutting, but this was a kickboxing boxing bout in the heavyweight division, so weight cutting was apparently not an issue in the tragedy.