Worst medical experiences

[Warrenkicker]

This one is from back when I was playing in high school.

We were on defense and there was an injury. Our coach went out and finally came back saying that our starting linebacker couldn't move. The defensive coordinator was freeking out thinking that our linebacker had a broken back or neck. However it was the running back who was injured and had a broken leg. His leg was laying across our linebacker's chest and the bone was sticking out. Nobdy wanted to move it so they just left him there for a while until they got the proper equipment to stabilize everything.

[Tom.OH]

Pee Wee championship game for the 6TH graders a couple years ago. Back tackled on a sweep and broke his thigh bone (whatever it is called). He was in a lot of pain. The ambulances are normally 1/4 mile from the field but they were both out and another was called from 15 miles away. It was the longest 25 minutes on record. Good news he was playing Jr High the next year.

[Bob M.]

REPLY: It's called the femur. It's the largest bone in the body. That kid must have taken some shot to break it. A friend of mine worked a game as U where a kid broke his on an off-tackle play. Friend said it sounded like someone broke a branch over his knee! I've also heard that the healing of that bone is also a real ordeal.

[BigGref]

I have seen injuries in sports from many different angles. When I played, I broke some one's leg, I broke ribs,and in my first game a kid did a head first tackle and had to be carted off with some type of neck injury. Someone that worked at the park said something like "so this is your first game, I hope it doesn't scare you away from it." And now I am a paramedic and I've seen about every type of bone break (nice big open ones) and its amazing some people's tolerance and the body's ability to cope.

Head injuries are a very scary thing if you don't know much about them, here's a few articles about head and neck injuries in football and other sports, it has some good information about mechanisms of injury http://www.medco-athletics.com/body/Free-CEU.htm this also could help you in penalizing certain "head tackles."

Also This is a question for any other health professionals who also officiate. When and how do you or should you intervene/take command of medical situations during contests you are officiating? This may also extend to the stands in some cases where you have a low-level, rural, not well staffed game. I haven't really had to be in any of these situations, but I'm bound to be in someday, especially officiating 4 sports, so I'm looking for anyone who has been there.

[stevegarbs]

First year of officiating (oh so many years ago), freshman B game, only two of us working it. Kid gets up from a play and starts walking to the sideline with his arms outstretched, looking at his left arm and kind of groaning. I glance over at his left arm, too, and see shoulder, elbow, elbow, wrist.

Wait a minute, I think, 2 elbows? He had broken both bones in his forearm and there was an extra 90-degree bend between the elbow and the wrist. I still can't figure how he was walking to the sideline- I simply said "wait here" and ran for the coach- the look on that guy's face was priceless, too, as in "What do I do with this?" Kid continues off the field under his own power, is attended by other coaches and we resume play. Not sure the rest of teh players even knew what happened.

[tiger49]

Being involved in Canadian University Football I have seen alot in my 7 years there. During my first year we had our teams head CAT break her leg in 4 places when she was crashed into on the sidelines while attending to a player.

The other one was when the CherryPicker that contained the endzone camera crew tipped over crashing to the ground during the 2nd quarter of a game. The best part was the conference comissioner calling the crew to continue the game, while the mess was still being cleaned up as there was no debris on the field. Good news only one was injured with a broken leg.

[Edited by tiger49 on Jun 18th, 2005 at 03:37 PM]

[Warrenkicker]

Saw a nice one this past weekend in an arena game. I was working the chains and a defender made a great move and was going to make a tackle for a loss on the RB. However the defender went very low and the RB decided he could just run through him. The defender's arm must have gone right across the RB's knee when he was bringing it forward. The defender went straight down and his left arm just looked very wrong. As soon as he went down like that I was, by instinct, waving toward the bench for an injury. He had to carry his arm off the field because it didn't work at all. Apparently he dislocated his elbow. At least their defensive coordinater thought it was dislocated and not broken.

We had a blow out game like 50-0 in the forth quarter. The losing team was just running the ball up the middle to kill the clock. The running back got pushed back with the pile. As the kid fell backward to the ground he stuck out his right arm to break his fall. His forearm snapped in half! Ouch! His elbow was touching the back of his hand. I never heard such screams!

[BigGref]

I just had a recent couple of incidents. In baseball (JH game)I had a ball get fouled back bounced straight back off about a 6 inch gap in the fence bouced once and hit a 12-13 year old girl right on her head. Immediate crying and a catcher who almost started himself after hearing her cries. As a Paramedic and working towards a higher medical education I saw that people were crowding around her, since she was crying I knew the biggies are OK so I had to pull the catcher away so he could get his 3rd out. about 2 minutes later the inning was over and I walked over to the fence and asked if they needed help, I told them I was a paramedic and then they asked if I could look her over. So I asked her to come to the fence, asked her how she felt, asked what her name was, asked a quick math question and a short joke, asked mom if reactions were normal (yes) so I say play ball.

As I was coming home I of course run 10 seconds behind a car accident, so I'm out in the middle of a busy intersection in my full umpire gear with cleats checking the victims. What a day!

As far as where I work, you rarely have a duty to act when you are not on the clock, except for when you initiate care you can't leave. You could legally just drive by 3 bloody people on the way to game and not be held liable; but you will likely guilt yourself to death on the way to hell, so go ahead and stop , if you miss the kickoff you have a good excuse. As far as people in the peanut gallery, thats a shady area (in general); I would first pray that you have a nurse or doctor in the area, listen for those words (I'm a HCP) then get your game on. Some of those smaller games where you may be the only one on scene you have some tough decisions but a coach will likely not chew your as* if your doing compressions!

[dumbref]

Over the years I have seen my share of injuries – compound fractures, dislocated fingers, neck injuries… But two stand out and they both occurred on opening kick-offs.

We had decided to film all the state championship games to hopefully use for training. Had three camera angles – press box, end zone and we used one to isolate on an individual official. This game, we were isolating on the LJ. Opening kick went the LJ side to about the 15, the U picked up the runner who was tackled about the 30. U came in and got the spot. LJ had started moving toward the U to release him of the spot. Just as he got close to the action, there was a very late block and the blocked player was knocked into the LJ. Of course the players arms were flailing around and his elbow caught the LJ right in the face. The LJ never saw it coming and was knocked into the bench area out cold, nose bleeding and broken cheek bone. That was the only playfor the LJ in the championship game. You think that clip hasn’t been shown a time or two! No flag on the play either!!

The other was even worse. The two teams were big rivals six miles apart. I was the referee. Kick came down the middle and the runner veered toward my left as I trailed the play. There was a block (nothing hard) near the middle of the field about the 20. The runner was tackled about the 35 just outside the numbers with a huge pile that looked like a rugby scrum. L had the spot and I came in from the backside to separate them. Just as we were getting them up and going back to their huddles the L said “you’ve one down behind you”.

I see the kid that had been blocked in the middle of the field lying flat on his back about 10 yards behind the end of the run. I went to him and as usual began to ask if he was ok. As soon as I saw his eyes, I knew the question was not necessary. His eyes were rolled back in his head, gasping for breath. I didn’t stop the clock, I didn’t call for an official time-out, I just started calling for the medical staff which was on the side line. They were there in seconds. They took his face mask off and began mouth to mouth. An ambulance was on site, so we didn’t have wait. It was apparent from the beginning that this was not a good situation.

As the ambulance drove off the field, I got with the coach (visitors) of the injured player who was very emotional and we just walked toward the middle of the field. We did not talk very much, he just needed some time to gather his thoughts. We were both pretty sure the kid was dead before he left the field. Remember this was the opening kick-off. After some time, he decided he wanted to continue the game – which we did after allowing both teams to gather themselves a bite. The score was very one sided 30-0 at the half. During the break, word came from the hospital the kid was DOA. At that point the visiting coach wanted to end the contest – which of course everyone agreed to.

It turned out that the kid had a brain aneurism that could have occurred any time - any where. What I thought was a block, was him actually stumbling and falling before contact. He got up from there and tried to get back to the bench and collapsed before he could make it. I’m convinced he was all but dead before I got to him. But I had a few sleepless nights after that one. I’ll never forget his eyes.