Ryan Hatch
The Duncan Banner
DUNCAN
October 31, 2008 12:26 pm
—
Someone, somewhere, on a high school football field in the country will suffer a life-threatening injury tonight.
It could be a compound bone fracture, a neck injury or spinal cord damage, and it could happen at any point during the game, to any player. Football is quickly becoming our national pastime, but it’s also a sport where serious injuries are part of the game. And, unfortunately, they will continue as long as football remains the violent, contact sport that it is.
One of these injuries occurring to a player in one of our nearby schools probably won’t happen. And it likely won’t happen to anyone in the state of Oklahoma tonight. But, it might — and many have asked why the chance is taken.
According to an ESPN article and the American Journal of Sports Medicine published last fall, over 1.5 million boys play high school football across the United States. In the report, it said that from 1977 to 2006, there were 222 spinal cord injuries resulting in permanent disabilities. A number small in comparison to the amount of players who participate, but still one to recognize when the statistics have stayed the same throughout the years, despite claims of better equipment and helmets to prevent injury.
Coaches are supposed to teach kids the correct way to block and tackle, but having teams with dozens of players, sometimes the message gets lost.
Our area schools have, for the most part, in place a system of response to such emergencies, ranging from medical personnel on the field to emergency ambulances and helicopters. Most schools have these services present, or just minutes away, to respond to an emergency on the field. They provide help to both teams on the field, as it usually is the case for the home team to provide medical assistance and treatment to all players.
But in some cases, medical staff and volunteers on the field don’t always cut it. There’s only so much a small staff can do in case of a serious emergency, and in the case of life-threatening injuries — an ambulance pales in comparison to the availability of a fully equipped hospital with a trauma center.
Last week, Bray-Doyle hosted Maysville high school on Friday night. Several minutes into the second half, Bray-Doyle had a player go down on the field, injuring what appeared to be his head or neck. For precaution, he was kept stabilized on the field. Nearly 50 minutes later, help arrived and he was taken in an ambulance to the hospital. Luckily, his injury wasn’t serious and didn’t need immediate medical attention.
Bray-Doyle Superintendent Kevin McKinley, he said that in the last few years it has been difficult to have an ambulance on site at home football games, simply because they are not available. He said that on Friday nights they are busy, serving Marlow games and other calls. The last three years, he said, ambulances haven’t been able to commit working Bray-Doyle football games.
“There’s just simply not enough out there,” McKinley said.
Something, it appears, is missing. Many have said Bray-Doyle is lucky to have not had a more serious injury occur, inciting what may be a myriad of problems for the school. McKinley said his school has EMT personnel at each game, but have limits on what they can do for an injured player.
At Duncan high school, athletic director Burl White said there is always at least one ambulance at the field, if not two for every home game. Additionally, he said, there are several doctors who attend every home game, as well as travel with the team to away games. He said he’s been fortunate enough to not have anything serious happen in the 11 years as an administrator.
“We always have medical staff available at our games, and have police officers who are contracted out to be there,” White said. “We feel very safe in case of any sort of emergency.”
White said the school pays the bill at the end of each season, whether the medical staff has spent five minutes or five hours with a player.
Similarly at Velma-Alma, its school has an ambulance at every home game in case of an emergency. Several weeks ago, in fact, a player for the Comets suffered a severe leg injury and was able to receive attention soon after the incident. What took just about 10 minutes at V-A took nearly an hour at Bray-Doyle.
Mike Thompson, V-A athletic director said they are lucky to have access to area ambulances, and always make sure to have one just a call away.
“We always have at least one nearby,” Thompson said. “Without a doubt we feel safe at our field and for the players.”
Comanche high school has implemented a protection for all its students, not just on the football field. Athletic director Aaron Weast said his school has begun using a system called Air Evac Life Team, a helicopter service guaranteed to assist any coach, player or person at Comanche in case of emergency. Within 15 minutes of the first phone call, a helicopter will land and evacuate a person to a nearby hospital, anywhere from Dallas to Oklahoma City, depending on the case. The helicopter flies from Lawton or wherever it may be at the time, and can be in Oklahoma City within 15 minutes. Weast said it’s the first year the school has done so, and they pay by the athlete or person.
“We had them come out here a few weeks ago, do a test landing before the Marlow game,” Weast said. “It was great to see but I told them I hope to never see them again.”
Weast said a family member told him of the service and that it seemed like a plausible solution to bring to the high school.
“It’s actually cheaper than ambulance service,” he said. “It’s like you pay with insurance, but it saves you a 15-thousand dollar trip to the emergency room. We feel really comfortable in its availability.”
Comanche head coach Brent Clark said it’s a really nice feeling to know that both teams are covered when they’re playing at home.
“The last thing you want is for someone to get injured like that,” Clark said. “Safety should be in the front of everyone’s mind, especially in a high school football game.”
When asked about possibly implementing a mandatory safety requirement for schools, Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association (OSSAA) spokesman Ron Etheridge had little comment. He said that it was outside the jurisdiction of their governing board, and that those decisions are left up to the individual schools.
“We can’t mandate something like that,” Etheridge said. “We have nothing to do with it.”
For something to change, most speculated that it will take a catastrophic incident in the area for something to be done from the state department.
“We just have to hope nothing like that ever does happen,” Clark said. “Luckily for us we have something in place in case it does.”
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