Sport broadcaster Telfer in induced coma

Brendan Telfer was returning to Auckland when he collapsed at Wellington Airport. Photo / Herald file

Veteran sports broadcaster Brendan Telfer is in an induced coma in Wellington Hospital after he collapsed from what is thought to be bleeding on his brain while at the city's airport on Sunday.

Telfer, a presenter for Radio Sport, has had surgery but it has not been made clear if he had a stroke, which can involve bleeding within the brain.

It is understood he had an aneurism, an abnormal bulging of an artery, and bleeding on the brain.

His book, A Life in Sport, has just been released and the publisher, Trio Books, had planned a launch in Auckland today. That has now been postponed.

Telfer's family, including his wife, Jan, and two sons, are understood to be with him.

Aged in his late 50s, he is based in Auckland and was returning home from the New Zealand Open golf tournament in Queenstown when he collapsed at an airport counter.

"He had been in Wellington for two engagements and was on his way back [to Auckland]. He was about to catch a plane," Radio Sport's general manager, Bill Francis, said yesterday.

Telfer, a sports journalist for more than three decades, has covered several Olympic Games and international netball tests for Television New Zealand.

Writing in 2005, journalist Duncan Greive quoted Mr Francis on Telfer's dogged style: "He's someone who can probe and delve into an issue as well as anyone working in the sports media.

"Any sportsperson making news or controversy will need to take into account that Brendan's going to delve and find out what the real story is."

The Neurological Foundation's medical adviser, Dr Jon Simcock, said bleeding into the brain accounted for 10 to 15 per cent of strokes and was commonly linked to high blood pressure. The rest arose from an artery serving the brain becoming blocked, usually with a blood clot.

He said the wall of an artery could bleed into the brain in several ways.

"The commonest is when a small artery ruptures. That's in people who with a history of longstanding raised blood pressure."