freeagent
Six-man pro
Guys, I doubt if I'm the "expert" on this and maybe I am looking for other advice and voices on this, but last Friday for the second time in five years, I was on the field/sidelines when EMS and airlife had to helicopter a young man off a football field.
Fortunately, in both instances, the young men were fine and released from the hospital that evening. But it is a sobering and scary incident. And some day, perhaps our luck will run out. Lord willing, He will continue to protect these young men.
Anyway, a couple things came to mind:
1. If you are not already hiring an EMS tech and an off-duty police/sheriff deputy for your games (especially varsity games), start doing so. In both instances, their presence at the time of injury was extremely valuable. I know UIL has some requirements for this already, private schools are less regulated on this.
It may cost you $60-100 for each of these folks, and hopefully most nights, it will be wasted money.
But the night you need them, it is well worth all those other nights they sat around and ate your food and drank your sodas. The EMS tech or ambulance crew (an ambulance may cost you much more unless you have a friend in high places who can arrange to have someone park their bus in the endzone for the night) can provide the needed first aid AND contact the folks who can get help quickly. An off duty police officer can help direct traffic, clear areas as needed, and also contact help (I can tell you that we had a good number of Guadalupe Co. Sherriff's officers here Friday night, as well as Seguin EMS ambulance and fire personnel). They can advise you if areas need to be cleared for a helicopter landing; we found we needed to get some folks to move cars (some doofus moved his/her car into an exit lane AFTER the fire engine and ambulance arrived...).
In our case, the helicopter landed on the football field and we needed to clear sidelines (that sucker kicked up a lot of wind). I was told by some in the know that it would have been better to land elsewhere, and although I'm not a pilot, I'd think that a nice lighted area was as good as anyplace I could think of.
The presence of these EXPERTS allows you as school officials to focus on crowd control, etc. instead of actually managing the medical emergency.
2. I had the good fortune to be the PA announcer Friday night. When the injury occured, I made a conscious decision to SHUT UP. I did not speculate on who was down (in fact, the initial report I had since the injury was on the other sideline was that another athlete was down), nor did I speculate on what happened. I decided that my medical diagnostic abilities were not earned through an accredited medical college nor were they very effective approximately 50 yards away from the scene.
Not until the young man was safely loaded into the ambulance (and awaiting the helicopter) did the PA come back to life (and I actually had our assistant pastor lead the group in prayer).
Until we could identify the player AND find his parents (who fortunately were on the sideline as our junior high coach and his mother operating the clock), silence was golden. And then, quietly getting them to their child was better than saying "Would Mr. & Mrs. Smith please come to the field" via the PA.
3. Your game administrator should be aware to keep folks from trying to go to the field. Again, if medical and security personnel are on site, you can focus on this instead of the injury itself. If your school leadership (principal, pastor, etc.) aren't at the game, it's probably worthwhile having someone reach them via phone to advise them what's going on.
4. You may also get calls from media, etc. asking what went on. Be careful what you share with the media. Ask permission of the athlete's parents on what information you can or cannot share (there is some concern about HIPPA medical privacy laws). You should determine who from your school is the person authorized to talk to the media. With today's cell phone cameras, videos, etc. people can and will send these to the media.
I'm not certain this is anywhere a "comphrensive" way of handling this situation ... but as I was told by another Seguin EMS tech after the helicopter had left, this is the standard operating procedure for any head/neck injury especially in a football game.
Fortunately, in both instances, the young men were fine and released from the hospital that evening. But it is a sobering and scary incident. And some day, perhaps our luck will run out. Lord willing, He will continue to protect these young men.
Anyway, a couple things came to mind:
1. If you are not already hiring an EMS tech and an off-duty police/sheriff deputy for your games (especially varsity games), start doing so. In both instances, their presence at the time of injury was extremely valuable. I know UIL has some requirements for this already, private schools are less regulated on this.
It may cost you $60-100 for each of these folks, and hopefully most nights, it will be wasted money.
But the night you need them, it is well worth all those other nights they sat around and ate your food and drank your sodas. The EMS tech or ambulance crew (an ambulance may cost you much more unless you have a friend in high places who can arrange to have someone park their bus in the endzone for the night) can provide the needed first aid AND contact the folks who can get help quickly. An off duty police officer can help direct traffic, clear areas as needed, and also contact help (I can tell you that we had a good number of Guadalupe Co. Sherriff's officers here Friday night, as well as Seguin EMS ambulance and fire personnel). They can advise you if areas need to be cleared for a helicopter landing; we found we needed to get some folks to move cars (some doofus moved his/her car into an exit lane AFTER the fire engine and ambulance arrived...).
In our case, the helicopter landed on the football field and we needed to clear sidelines (that sucker kicked up a lot of wind). I was told by some in the know that it would have been better to land elsewhere, and although I'm not a pilot, I'd think that a nice lighted area was as good as anyplace I could think of.
The presence of these EXPERTS allows you as school officials to focus on crowd control, etc. instead of actually managing the medical emergency.
2. I had the good fortune to be the PA announcer Friday night. When the injury occured, I made a conscious decision to SHUT UP. I did not speculate on who was down (in fact, the initial report I had since the injury was on the other sideline was that another athlete was down), nor did I speculate on what happened. I decided that my medical diagnostic abilities were not earned through an accredited medical college nor were they very effective approximately 50 yards away from the scene.
Not until the young man was safely loaded into the ambulance (and awaiting the helicopter) did the PA come back to life (and I actually had our assistant pastor lead the group in prayer).
Until we could identify the player AND find his parents (who fortunately were on the sideline as our junior high coach and his mother operating the clock), silence was golden. And then, quietly getting them to their child was better than saying "Would Mr. & Mrs. Smith please come to the field" via the PA.
3. Your game administrator should be aware to keep folks from trying to go to the field. Again, if medical and security personnel are on site, you can focus on this instead of the injury itself. If your school leadership (principal, pastor, etc.) aren't at the game, it's probably worthwhile having someone reach them via phone to advise them what's going on.
4. You may also get calls from media, etc. asking what went on. Be careful what you share with the media. Ask permission of the athlete's parents on what information you can or cannot share (there is some concern about HIPPA medical privacy laws). You should determine who from your school is the person authorized to talk to the media. With today's cell phone cameras, videos, etc. people can and will send these to the media.
I'm not certain this is anywhere a "comphrensive" way of handling this situation ... but as I was told by another Seguin EMS tech after the helicopter had left, this is the standard operating procedure for any head/neck injury especially in a football game.
