Wasn't much I could do about this, but thought it we a fun topic to kick around. Had a three-game set one afternoon a couple years ago - 5-6th grade, 7th grade, then an 8th grade game. Guy on the chain crew had just got his EMT certificate with the local volunteer department that week (I should have known this was going to happen!). Game one, kid bumps his knee when he fell and stars crying. Our rookie EMT rushes on the field, exams him, and calls the ambulance on his radio. Total delay - 15 minutes. Second game, kid hurts his arm - ambulance called. Third game, another knee, another call to the ambulance - but the village's ambulance is still tied up with the last call so they send an ambulance from the next village - 30 minutes. And wouldn't you know it - one more injury, one more ambulance call and even longer wait because the area's two ambulances are both tied up! We started at 4:30, should have been done by 8. Walked off the field at 10 p.m. 4 boo-boos, no real injuries, and four kids in the hospital in one afternoon!!!!

I haven't had anything too too bad.

Doing a provincial final 2 years ago. Second or third play from scrimmage and pop - a guys ankle was 67° to the left-right-up-down. Short day for him. His team ended up winning by stopping the other team on the last play of the game.

REPLY: Varsity game a number of years ago. QB gets sacked and doesn't get up. Trainer, docs come out. Kid's neck hurts. Doc says don't move him. Calls ambulance. They come and finally get him on the backboard still in helmet of course. Game resumes about an hour later. Saw the kid later on in the season wearing one of those contraptions that mount on the shoulders and then screw into the head. Seems he ended up breaking a cervical vertebrae.

Another that didn't happen to me personally, but rather to a good friend who was a referee in a varsity game. Kid collapses on the field. Trainer and doc come out...call the EMTs over. Rush him to the hospital where he's pronounced DOA. Can't recall exactly the cause, but I did watch the play on the news that evening. Kid was running behind his defensive line at the snap. Slight bump into two guys engaged in blocking and collapses. No violent contact...just a relatively minor bump. My friend didn't get over that one for quite a while.

We had broken legs two years in a row at the same school. Different players but same school. Ambulance on the field, 15 minute delay...it was like deja vu. We went the third year afraid to start the game for fear we'd have a hat trick.

Wiseref2: I think I would have sent the EMT along with the second ambulance.

JV game. Home team is a small town school with only 13 total players. 1st quarter, visiting team punts, home team fields it and the player with the ball gets taken down with a clean tackle. Kid begins screaming in agony (using some pretty colorful language) and one of the guys on the crew tells him to settle down. He takes one look at the kid and notices that his leg is bent at an aweful angle -- He had a full break of his leg. Immediately called the ambulance. 30-45 minutes later we get the game going again.

I'm a bit queazy when it comes to seeing stuff like that so I'm glad I wasn't the covering official. :)

oh geez.............
 

Pop-Warner playoffs in San Jose area few years back. AMR is our legit service, on field and accreitted, they are the appointed med staff. Kid busts about a 60 yard run, gets tackled from behind and face plants. Gets up, staggers ands goes back down, he's out. I am WH and signal for med satff(thay were on the way already), paramedics are there, get helmet off and are checking for spinal cord injury, all of a sudden this woman rushes out, claims she's a surgical RN and decides to try to take over. This woman is HOT(pissed), tels para's to **** off and she knows all that is God and more. Fortunately, prez guy is on field, I help him get the crazy-***** off our field and let the APPOINTED med staff do it's job.

Bottom line was to allow the APPOINTED med staff work, not somebody from the stands

I've seen a couple bones sticking out of fingers in flag football. But nothing major in tackle.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lucky you!!!!!!

Semi-pro game last year, WR goes down, stays down, and when I get over there, his right wrist is bent 90 degrees to the right (away from the thumb). 35 minute delay and real nasty looking.

BB game had a kid come down and after the fall his elbow is bending the opposite direction of normal. That was nasty looking as well.

Had a kid try a block on the opening kickoff of a varsity game, and didn't get up. Coach came out and saw the knee bent a weird angle, and first thing he asks the kid, "Is that the knee you just had surgery on?" Kid's response: "AWWWWWW ****, yes it is!" We stood back and watched while the rescue squad guys got him on the board and into the bus. Delay took about 15 minutes. Kid even "instructed" the EMT's on how to handle the knee.

I use this general rule out on the field: NEVER touch a player. It's not your job to be the doctor or the hero. You don't have enough liability insurance! Only time I'd touch a kid is if I see him choking on his mouth guard. There are trainers and coaches whose job it is to take care of injuries.

The absolutely worst medical situation I can remember had a bunch of conflicting thnigs all at once.

Rainy Saturday morning JV game. Two players hit head on and fall immediately to the gorund. Attendants rush on the field just as the rain begins to fall heavily. Home team players gets up but visiting player appears to be unconscious.

It is decided to call for an ambulance. As someone runs to get a cell phone the heavy rain suddenly becomes a full blown thunderstorm with visible lightning.

In accordance with state rules the game is immediately suspended and players sent to shelter. Except the player on the ground should not be moved as the horn goes off to summon the volunteer fire department.

An attendant runs to the bench to get a blanket and an unbrella to keep the player from going into hypothermia. Don't forget there is an intense thunderstorm in progress.

It all ended well when the ambulance showed up five minutes later.

Can you imagine the report if someone had been struck by ligntning!

Forksref, good point but there's one exception that I was made aware of by a fellow cadet a few years ago.

From this instance I can think of, it's my understanding an official is obligated to touch a injured player. If a game official or member of the chain crew is working the game and happens to be an EMT, he or she is an EMT first and an official second. (That's what he told us any way).

While working as a cadet our supervisor told us to NEVER touch a player which to most of us only makes sense. We had an EMT in our class who spoke up and corrected our instructor that legally in these situations he could be held criminally liable if he doesn't intervene. He brought up one situation where a coach was about to remove a helmet from a player and (luckily) he intervened and as adamant about what needed to be done. He basically had to argue his credentials because coaches know we're not supposed to touch kids either. The kid ended up injuring a "C-5" (or what ever it's called) on the play and if the coach had removed the helmet it could have led to spinal cord damage. He took the necessary steps to secure the player's head and in the end he may have saved further injury.

Hey gainesta38, you catching any of this thread??

This is not true in all states. Medically trained personnel don't have a legal obligation to act when a bystander or passerby. Ethically yes, but legally no. For instance, a trauma doctor is under no legal obligation to stop his car when passing a traffic accident with obvious injuries. However, if he does become involved, he must stay involved until the crisis passes or relieved by an equivalent or higher medical authority.

The legal question that could be raised, is a person hired to be an official a bystander for purposes of providing medical treatment? Or once one has been hired on in any capacity, must he also assume medical duties if trained to do so?

Good question. I doubt that the answer is the same everywhere.

Good one kdf5, I had almost forgotten about our "cool eyeshield" young man.

About 3 seasons ago, kid makes a tackle on a punt, is knocked out cold. Can tell he's out as he fell with his arm underneath him at a wierd angle and he never attempts to move it once he's down.

There's an EMT on our crew that day, but there is a doctor present (league rule) and he examines him and summons the ambulance. They unscrew his facemask and start to administer an airway as he starts making a snoring sound (the EMT later tells me that when that happens it means their airway is obstructed and they are about to stop breathing). The entire team is behind me on the sidelines on one knee, most openly crying as they believe this boy is dying. Weeks earlier, a boy had collapsed and died at a scrimmage, so it was the first thing I thought of and I'm sure they did too. One of the assistant coaches with the player is yelling the boy's name at him imploring him to wake up and try to squeeze his hand. As he keeps repeating himself, it just makes the situation seem more deperate as you can tell he's not responding.

They get him stabilized and on his way to the hospital. Now we have to regroup and play the rest of this game. I'm pretty shaken up at this point, as are most involved.

The player ended up having suffered a pretty bad concussion, but plays i the state championship game that year and makes something like 15 tackles (he was a freshman) in a win for his club. He will be going to Syracuse this fall. Happy ending for him but a pretty scary moment back then.

This was a JV game and the field we played on is harder than concrete. The QB does a draw and is met at the LOS by their linebacker who picks him up at the thighs and puts him on his back. When he hit the ground his head bounces. As they are unpiling, the QB is bent over, grabbing the back of his helmet.

I called an OTO, and told the kid to leave the field. His coach sees this and starts yelling at me, wondering what the he#*. As the QB starts towards the sideline, he runs at a 45 degree angle towards the sideline, leaning like he was drunk. The coach immediately understood. Kid stayed out the rest of the game. Head injuries scare me to death. Unlike a broken arm, you might not be able to tell right away there's a problem.

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.

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.

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.

good thread many different angles
 

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 <html> http://www.medco-athletics.com/body/Free-CEU.htm </html> 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.

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.

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]

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're very lucky in our crew that our umpire is an emergency room nurse. He does not usually get involved but he will identify himself as such to the trainer/doctor or coaches before the game if they need his help. He leaves injuries up to them unless they specifically ask him for assistance.

The worst I've seen was a running back who got hit from two sides just as he was planting after stepping thru the line. He got a twist fracture of the hip. Entire leg is point in bad directions.
He screaming the he'll never walk again, etc. I'm right there so I tell him to be quiet, the doctor's will fix you up. He's says OK and calms right down. For about a mionute. Then he starts up again. So I start telling he stories about "bad" injuries and how he's gonna be just fine. Calms down again. Another minute goes by and now the EMTs are there and he starts up again. This time I said "Hey that's about enough of that! These guys are gonna take good care of you until they get you to the doctors who are gonna fix you right up... SO ZIP IT!" him "OK sir"
I later got a thank you note from the kid and his coach for "my assurance, and help keeping him calm.

Second worst was a pass receiver running patterns in pre-game in Cupertino, Ca about 27 years ago. He went airborne to catch one. Hit the ground and started screaming. At the time I was an EMT and ran over to him. Looked down at his knee. The patella was around the back side of the knee, completely detached. Having had knee injuries I don't blame the kid for screaming his head off!

A couple years ago, during the last varsity game of the regular season, a player from the visitors dislocated his hip. He was flat on his back with his right leg about 60 degrees out to the side, with his toes down in the grass. Seeing the paramedics move him onto a board was bone chilling, especially with the kid crying like he was. He caught a pass and was hit on the thighs from the side and wrapped up while running and twisted down to the ground. The tackle was text book and looked harmless. I swear I could feel the kids pain.

hey Guy's
I am currently playing varsity football with a team in stl. This happened to me this year. Was playing Tightend and went across the field about 10 yards deep, and the ball was thrown to me very slowly and high. The middle linebacer and I both go up for it and since the mlb was in the way I ended up having to lean to catch it. I out jump him and get the ball, as soon as i catch it i am hit by the safty in the ribs. I pass out immediatly. turns out I broke 4 ribs. and tissue( i dont no the tech terms) inbetween 3 of those ribs I only know the details from watching the game tape. As it turns out I was able to convice the doc and trainer to let me play after sitting out 1 week. Just thought I'd share.

Fonzy,

Did you make the catch?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...

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.

Broken Forearm
 

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!

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!

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.