Police say it is too soon to say if a teenage bashing victim has brain damage after an attack in south Auckland last week.
The 19-year-old Papakura teenager remains critically ill but stable, in a coma in Auckland Hospital.
Detective Senior Sergeant Faa Vaaelua, from the Counties Manukau police, said until the teenager came out of the coma doctors would not know if he had sustained brain damage from the beating by four attackers in Mt Wellington last Thursday morning.
The victim was involved in a verbal exchange with the occupants of a car while walking home with his girlfriend and her friend along Jolson Rd, Mt Wellington, about 3.20am, after watching the State of Origin rugby league match on television.
Mr Vaaelua said the car stopped and the teenager was kicked and punched by four Maori or Pacific Island men as his girlfriend screamed at them to stop. He later had emergency surgery in Auckland to relieve brain swelling.
"There were no weapons at all. It was punches and kicks," Mr Vaaelua said. "He was outnumbered. It was four to one."
The attackers were believed to have been in a dark-coloured Subaru station wagon.
