Better gear alters care
Advancements in the safety features on football helmets and other gear have changed best practices for first responders treating athletes on the sidelines.
St. Anthony’s Hospital emergency-room doctors on Friday trained paramedics and emergency medical technicians from West Metro Fire Rescue on assessing and stabilizing injured high school and college football players. They’ll do it again on Thursday.
The training focused on head and spinal-cord injuries.
“We haven’t seen an uptick in this type of injury,” West Metro Fire spokeswoman Ronda Scholting said. “NFL concussion procedures have changed, so the protocols we’re introducing to paramedics, medics and EMT’s are on how to best package a patient, whether from high school to the professional level.”
St. Anthony Hospital sees 60,000 patients per year and 1 percent of those are categorized as sports-related injuries. Not all 600 of those patients are admitted for suspected brain trauma or concussion, but the start of the contact-sports season and updates to the safety features of football equipment means new approaches to treatment.
“Football helmets now have air bladders in them that cushion the head,” St. Anthony clinical nurse specialist Shawn Zembles said. “You can remove the helmet guard to access the face and neck without removing the full helmet.”
First responders got practice removing different helmet models. Most are now fashioned to act as a securing device for the injured player’s head, neck and spine. Zembles said EMTs are advised to leave those on until the person has been transported to an emergency facility with officials who are properly trained to do the removal.
Likewise, first responders who once were advised to get an injured player out of their shoulder pads immediately, now are advised to leave the protective gear in place, Scholting said.
St. Anthony Hospital has a physician group that works with the Denver Broncos, and they seek to maintain standard operating procedures whether they’re dealing with an injured pro or a school-aged player.
“We’re not intending to scare any parent or child,” hospital spokesman Jeremy Metz said. “Any contact sport does have inherent dangers and we try to target our training with what is going on during the year. It’s just a timely training for the community.”