An Aberdeen kick boxer, Jameston Lee-Yaw, 47, died following a mixed martial arts fight Saturday night at the SouthShore Mall. He was initially taken to Grays Harbor Community Hospital after the fight then transferred to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle where he died Monday.
An Aberdeen kick boxer, Jameston Lee-Yaw, 47, died following a mixed martial arts fight Saturday night at the SouthShore Mall. He was initially taken to Grays Harbor Community Hospital after the fight then transferred to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle where he died Monday.
The King County Medical Examiner’s Office reported the cause of death as renal failure.
He was competing at an event billed as the “Brawl at the Mall” when he collapsed in the ring and was carried by teammates to a dressing room, said Jameston’s ex-wife Linda Lee-Yaw, who was at the fight.
She said that during the match a referee twice asked Jameston if he was going to “tap out,” meaning to tap the mat or the opponent to signal he was conceding defeat, and each time Jameston responded by waving his arm in the air. After being taken to the dressing room by teammates, it was discovered that the fighter was having trouble breathing. Aberdeen Fire Department paramedics were called and he was taken to Community Hospital before being transferred to Harborview Medical center, where he died Monday night.
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Twin Dragons Center Mixed Martial Arts, which has training facilities at the mall, put on the event. Head instructor Scott Bean said Lee-Yaw “passed his pre-fight check with flying colors,” adding that any kidney problems prior to the fight were undetectable.
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.
Jerome and his brother moved to the United States from Trinidad more than 20 years ago. Linda Yee-Law, who had been married to Jameston for 17 years before they divorced last September, said the couple has two children together.
Twin Dragons is located in the mall and has a training facility license from the state in order to host MMA events.
Amateur bouts that take place with a training facility license are not required to have medical staff on hand at the events and leave the training facility and its staff responsible for the health and safety of participants.
Brad Benfield of the Washington Department of Licensing said that as a matter of protocol, someone from the department will meet with Twin Dragon employees in the near future to inquire about the incident.