Wainwrights turn off mother's life support after Cuba bike crash

THE mother of former Scotland rugby captain Rob Wainwright has died in an American hospital after being seriously injured during a cycling adventure holiday in Cuba.

Mr Wainwright was at his mother's bedside when she died. Jean Wainwright, 75, was left in a coma following the accident and her family had taken the heartbreaking decision to transfer her from a hospital in Cuba to a Florida medical facility so that her treatment could be discontinued.

Mrs Wainwright, 75, a keen cyclist and marathon runner, is understood to have fractured her skull while taking part in a tour of the Caribbean island organised by CTC, the UK's national cyclists' organisation. The accident happened about 80 miles from the capital, Havana.

The former rugby star, who now runs a bed and breakfast on the island of Coll, flew to Cuba last week with Mrs Wainwright's husband James, a former warden of Glenalmond College in Perthshire, and the couple's daughters Holly, Sasha, Alison and Joanna. Rob was chosen to take the only passenger seat available on the air ambulance flight being used to transfer his mother to Florida.

Her grieving husband said yesterday that he now regretted encouraging his wife to go on the cycling trip to Cuba, but could take comfort from knowing his wife had "died doing something she really loved".

He said: "Jean never came out of the coma. We were all totally agreed as a family that she would not have wanted to continue like that, not being able to live as she would have wanted to."

He added: "My wife had massive brain damage. We asked the doctors in Cuba to discontinue treatment, but this was not allowed under their regulations."

The family then decided to transfer Mrs Wainwright to Florida. Mr Wainwright said: "The air ambulance could only take one passenger, and my son Robert went with my wife. We could not follow as there were no direct flights from Havana to Florida.

"The medical people in America later confirmed what the Cuban doctors had already told us. When they discontinued life support they expected her to survive only a few hours. But she was so fit and put up such a struggle she survived another 20 hours."

Mr Wainwright, who lives at Gannochy in Perthshire, said the accident that claimed his wife's life had happened as Mrs Wainwright was nearing the end of her cycling tour of Cuba.

"She was cycling by herself when she apparently had a blackout," he said.

"There was nothing wrong with the road surface, and when the group came across her she still had one hand on the handlebars, and her leg over the frame, as if she had fallen very slowly. The medical investigation also seemed to indicate that she made no effort to cushion her fall."

He said: "We loved our cycling trips. I encouraged her to go to Cuba. I wish I hadn't now, but she was very keen. She loved CTC tours. She ran to keep fit, but she cycled for enjoyment and to meet people. We have the very great consolation knowing that she died doing something she really loved."Mr Wainwright also praised the staff at the Calixto Garcia Hospital in Havana where his wife had been treated and the support he had received from their children.

"The doctors there were wonderful and very sympathetic," he said. "My son and daughters were also fantastic and a terrific help to me and each other."

Gordon Woods, the current warden of Glenalmond College, also paid tribute to Mrs Wainwright. He said: "Mrs Wainwright was a well known and popular figure at Glenalmond and she has been an active participant in the school community for many years. She will be greatly missed by all who knew her."