Worst medical experiences

[tnzebra]

Few years ago in a varsity game I had a QB take a real shot on a tackle. He gets right up and starts walking to the huddle. I am U and he starts to walk toward me stumbling, he was knocked out cold but is staggering toward me. As he gets to me he falls, my choice is to either grab him or to let him faceplant the dirt. Out of instinct I grab him and hold him up as the training staff gets to me. I was unsure if this was the right thing to do but out of instinct I did not want to see him hit the ground. He was ok and actually played later that game.

[Jim D]

I'm not a lawyer but I think it would sound a lot better to a jury trying to decide blame that I caught the kid as he was stumbling and falling rather than get up there and testify that he started to fall and I stepped aside and watched him topple.

[fonzzy07]

Originally Posted by Jim D

Fonzy,

Did you make the catch?

Hell Yes but lets say the coaches were impressed. The funny part is it was the back up qb cause rs was out, after that game the coaches sat him down and told him he was no longer gonna play qb. I felt bad for him, I never blamed him for it, that sorta stuff happens in the game and well thats part of what makes the game great. But the coaches praised me and blamed him for everything.

[Texas Aggie]

Not a game I officiated in, but played. Flag football in college, played on a field they also played soccer on. They moved the soccer goals back about 15 feet from the endline. I line up on defense at corner covering a receiver for a team at about the 10 yard line. On the snap, this dude takes off like a bullet and I think, "he's running a decoy," so I check back to the QB. The QB is eyeing this guy, who I think will stop inside the end line. Apparantly, the team and the recevier didn't realize how deep they were (at night, not very well lit at all), and this receiver is running a post route looking back at the QB all the way.

By this time, I'm halfway into the end zone when I start looking for the receiver who just then goes head first into a post on that soccer goal. So I'm on him (ignoring the play, but I think the QB threw it long for him!). He's out cold. About 30 seconds later or so, he comes to, and I said, "hey, man, are you OK?" By this time, everyone is standing around him.

He looks around and says, "yeah, I'm OK, but where's my guitar?"

I said, "stay there and don't move" and someone hustled to find an EMT. They took him to the Quack Shack but I think he was OK.

[Texas Aggie]

There's a difference between helping someone maintain their balance and touching a player after he's been injured in hopes of assisting his treatment.

State tort laws differ. The basis of tort liability in most states involves two MAIN factors (there are more legal elements, but for simplicity): duty and breach. You can't have legal liability without both. For example: you don't have a duty to prevent someone you don't know from shooting themselves in the foot, but you do have a duty to not shoot them yourself (absent something that excuses that conduct). Breaching duties is a little more self explanatory, but rest assured there are thousands of legal cases that have turned on minute details of a breach. Did Ford breach their duty to consumers by putting the Pinto's (or whatever car did this) fuel tank behind the rear axle? That was litigated extensively, I believe.

IF I am dealing with medical situations, here is some of the highlights as far as I'm concerned:

1. I won't in any way interfere or dictate treatment. My job is to stop the clock, beckon the coaches/trainers, and let them deal with things. I will assist in getting players out of the way and I will call security or the game administrator to keep fans off the field or keep whoever doesn't belong there off, but I'm only concerned about my specific duties and the players.

2. If there are weather issues where I am doing something with the rest of the game participants that is inconsistent with what the medical treatment folks want to do with one or more injured players (i.e. get participants off the field due to lightning), I will do that and I will leave the field also, leaving the medical treatment folks responsible for the player on the field.

[cmathews]

Last year we had an interesting one. Normal off tackle play. As the pile starts to unpile there is some audible screaming. My head linesman is first to the pile and sees the carnage....the kid dislocated his hip. He is of course in a lot of pain. the HL tells the kid "don't move"...the kid looks up and says "don't worry I didn't plan on it" LOL...so even in that environment he kept a sense of humor. 45 minutes later we got the game going again. Kid recovered fine and wanted to play by the end of the season. Dislocated hips put legs in weird weird positions...

[ref5678]

Currently I serve as Fire Fighter/First Responder on two local fire departments. In Il i technically do not have a legal duty to act, but I have an ethical duty to act. Next year when i become an EMT-B I will have a duty to act, and therefore by law would be required to give assistance unless someone of a higher rank, or someone from that jurdistiction relieves me. A note to EMT's know your states duty to act laws, it can keep you out of trouble. If any of you gusy have more questions feel free to ask, and if i dont know the answer ill find out.

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.