Colombian referee loses consciousness
Reuters - Saturday 30 October 2010, 01:32
BOGOTA, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Top Colombian referee Oscar Ruiz
has been hospitalised after being found unconscious and
suffering with apparent symptoms of intoxication from "drunken
cocoa" at his Villavicencio home on Friday, his father has
said.
Oscar Ruiz Sr. said his son, who has officiated at three
World Cups and numerous internationals in South America,
appeared to be suffering from the effects of scopolamine, which
is extracted from a plant known in Colombia as drunken cocoa.
"It seems he was a victim of scopolamine, he is being
examined to rule out brain damage and a blood analysis is being
made to see what problems might come from the scopolamine,"
Oscar Ruiz senior told reporters.
Scopolamine can cause memory loss.
Ruiz Sr. said his lawyer and university professor son,
named the world's third best referee of the decade by FIFA's
statistics body IFFHS, was found pale with a vacant look in his
eyes and could not answer questions.
He was scheduled to referee Tuesday's match between
Newell's Old Boys of Argentina and Ecuador's LDU Quito, the
first leg of a quarter-final tie in the Copa Sudamericana, the
region's equivalent of the Europa League.