Ping Skydog: Story about Andrew's injury

[GrantDawg]

The AJC (http://www.ajc.com/highschool/content/sports/highschool/2003/project/18hslede.html) had an article this morning that you might have caught. Not specifically about Andrew, but he is the illustration. I'm surprised that Tucker games doesn't have an Ambulance on call. I know most of the highschool games I've been to, even at small schools, had them.

Thought if you hadn't seen it, might want a heads-up.

[Ksyrup]

Interesting. I went to high school in the 80's in Fayette County (McIntosh) and we always had an ambulance at the football games, and I remember one game at which it was needed. Sounds like they still do it there, at least.

[Ben E Lou]

I have been running crazy the last couple of days. I had my big fund-raising golf tournament today. I'm home and life returns to normal busy-ness now. I haven't read yesterday's paper or today's yet, but they are both sitting in a stack waiting for me. I glanced at the article on the internet, and can confirm everything David said, and can add more. The hospital wasn't exactly treating it as a life-threatening emergency either. He was put in a regular holding room for 5-10 minutes before he got any care at all, and that was just the checking of vitals, etc. It was only when he vomited all over the place that they moved him into the shock trauma unit. It felt like we were at the hospital for hours before they did surgery, but it was probably 60-90 minutes. (Apparently they don't open someone up without knowing what is going on unless it is considered life-threatening. They made an incision from his chest all the way down below the belly button.) By the time they operated his blood pressure was 40/20, and his color was corpse-grey. That was one scary night.

The one-year anniversary of the injury was Saturday, FYI. Andrew celebrated by starting as long-snapper for Samford University this weekend. :)

[Ben E Lou]

Dola--

There was a lot of phone calling and letter writing from Tucker folks after Andrew's injury. DeKalb County says they don't have enough ambulances to put one at every game. I just don't buy it. There are around 550,000 people in this county, and only 7 football stadiums. I can't imagine that they can't spare seven ambulances to either be at the stadiums, or at least in the general vicinity. Andrew's injury happened at St. Pius, which sits RIGHT on the interstate, for crying out loud! There is NOWHERE in DeKalb County more than 25 minutes away from St. Pius on a Friday night at 9:30pm. It is virtually impossible, or utterly poor planning, if there was not an ambulance within a 15-minute drive of St. Pius.

[GrantDawg]

Originally posted by SkyDog
Dola--

There was a lot of phone calling and letter writing from Tucker folks after Andrew's injury. DeKalb County says they don't have enough ambulances to put one at every game. I just don't buy it. There are around 550,000 people in this county, and only 7 football stadiums. I can't imagine that they can't spare seven ambulances to either be at the stadiums, or at least in the general vicinity. Andrew's injury happened at St. Pius, which sits RIGHT on the interstate, for crying out loud! There is NOWHERE in DeKalb County more than 25 minutes away from St. Pius on a Friday night at 9:30pm. It is virtually impossible, or utterly poor planning, if there was not an ambulance within a 15-minute drive of St. Pius.

I would have to agree. Every station in Dekalb has an ambulance, and considering back when my dad worked there 10 years ago there were 28 stations, I dare say they could spare seven. That is not to mention the number of private ambulance companies out there.

[Ksyrup]

But unless I read it wrong, I thought at least part of the problem was being able to provide a big enough financial incentive. They actually make more money being "on-call" than if they took $350 to sit for the game.

[GrantDawg]

Originally posted by Ksyrup
But unless I read it wrong, I thought at least part of the problem was being able to provide a big enough financial incentive. They actually make more money being "on-call" than if they took $350 to sit for the game.

Last time I checked, the Dekalb county fire department isn't in it for the money. Might restrict the privates, but if the privates are out there why must the county be?

[Balldog]

To bad, considering in our town we have two ambulances at the game and no one gets paid. They are all volunteers.

And our football team can't even hit hard enough to injure someone (or tackle, allowing over 40 points a game) . The only way and injury like that would happen would be if the other team had two players run into each other.

[henry296]

I didn't read the entire article, but even when I played HS soccer the ambulence was at every game.

Todd

[JonInMiddleGA]

FWIW, I had a conversation about this AJC series with a local GISA (private school) coach just last night.

It hadn't dawned on me until reading it in the Sunday version, but once it was mentioned, I realized that I've seen relatively few ambulances at various home games over the past five years or so.
I don't recall one being on standby for Spalding or Griffin, I believe Lamar County had one at the ready every night & I'm not sure about Pike County one way or the other. But in hindsight, I don't believe there was one on hand for any more than 25% or so of away games during that time and I've been all over the place from Class AA to AAAAA.

Here in my little town, the ambulance is station at the larger stadium if both teams are at home, at whichever has the home game if there's only one. And even on double-duty nights, the maximum drivetime between the two fields would be about 10 minutes even in post-game traffic.

I could be wrong about any or all of this, I'm just working with my best recollection.

Meanwhile, the first installment of the article may have accomplished at least one thing. I'm thinking about finding 2-3 other contributors and donating a portable defibrilator to the my son's school (at least, if the $1500-$2000 total cost estimate proves accurate).

[GrantDawg]

Originally posted by JonInMiddleGA

Meanwhile, the first installment of the article may have accomplished at least one thing. I'm thinking about finding 2-3 other contributors and donating a portable defibrilator to the my son's school (at least, if the $1500-$2000 total cost estimate proves accurate).

It is, and would be a good idea.

[illinifan999]

Wow, at the game where I broke both bones in my arm (Almost a compound fracture, almost) after about 5 minutes I was already in the ambulance going to the ER. Woulda been less but I was very persistant about them not cutting my gloves off. But I had to draw the line at the elbow pads. Since it was an away game, I'm not sure if the medical personal were paid or volunteers.

P.S. The funniest part was one of my teammates yelling "Coach, Coach" Coach running over, saying "Oh, it's probably dislocated" Then the medic saying, "No coach, that is not dislocated." I don't know why but I was laughing as that conversation happened.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally posted by Balldog
And our football team can't even hit hard enough to injure someone (or tackle, allowing over 40 points a game) . The only way and injury like that would happen would be if the other team had two players run into each other. Well, in Andrew's case he wasn't hit. He stretched to catch a pass, and landed stretched out, but not particulary hard. He had undiagnosed mononucleosis, which had caused his spleen to swell to three times normal size.

[Ben E Lou]

Ya know, it never occurred to me when I posted this thread (http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/~fof/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=011822) that a year later Andrew's picture would be on the front page, above the fold of the largest newspaper in the South a year later. I can still remember that night almost moment-by-moment. Funny how time seems to slow down during monumental events....

[JonInMiddleGA]

from http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/copbriefs/index.html

Student, 13, collapses, dies on field

A student at Sutton Middle School died Thursday after collapsing while playing soccer, officials said.

A coach and a school resource officer performed CPR and used an on-site defibrillator to get 13-year-old Emil Gadjev to breathe briefly, but he never regained consciousness, said Atlanta Public Schools spokesman Seth Coleman.

Coleman didn't know whether Emil was on the school soccer team. The incident happened at about 5:30 p.m.

[Ksyrup]

That incident sounds like something that occurred during school, as opposed to a scheduled after-school athletic event. Was it? I don't recall having an ambulance on-call at the school during normal school hours. What a tragedy.

[GrantDawg]

Originally posted by Ksyrup
That incident sounds like something that occurred during school, as opposed to a scheduled after-school athletic event. Was it? I don't recall having an ambulance on-call at the school during normal school hours. What a tragedy.

Not at 5:30pm. Could have been an after-school activity instead of the school team. Sad. The heat couldn't be the blame, because it has been great here the last couple of days.

[Ksyrup]

My bad. I missed the time reference. And you're right about the weather, it's been in the mid/upper 80's with low humidity here - quite pleasant.