UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Ohio — With catastrophic sports injuries all over the headlines in recent months—from the Demar Hamlin situation in the NFL in January to the most recent cardiac arrest incident LeBron James' 18-year-old son Bronny suffered this week—staying prepared and ready to act is top of mind for many medical professionals.
However, preparedness is something those professionals have been focused on for years. In fact, Cleveland Clinic Sports Medicine keeps its skills fresh with an annual Catastrophic Sports Injury Simulation Lab; this year's event was held at John Carroll University's Don Shula Stadium.
Athletic trainers and physicians gathered on the fields for simulations of sports injuries, rotating stations with robotic mannequins to practice live responses to injuries, concussions, broken or dislocated bones, heat stroke, asthma attacks and cardiac emergencies.
"What we use here is state-of-the-art simulators. They breathe, they talk, they have pulses. And what we do is we dress them up in football uniforms and equipment, and we get the most lifelike, realistic practice we can possibly in these medical situations," said Dr. Thomas Waters, medical director of Cleveland Clinic Main Campus Emergency Department.
Participants practiced stabilizing spinal injuries, doing chest compressions and attaching AEDs, responding to the mannequin's responses and talking back to the robotic patient to simulate keeping an athlete calm.
As fall and winter sports season at local high schools and colleges quickly approach, Cleveland Clinic Sports Medicine is working hard to be ready for the inevitable.
"We can probably be rest assured knowing that something like this, unfortunately, will happen in the Northeast Ohio region that we have to be prepared for this season," said Dr. Paul Saluan, director of Community Affairs and Education at Cleveland Clinic.
Saulan recalled the national headline incidents with James and Hamlin, noting that the training at JCU on Thursday was something that they've been doing for years—and training that others do regularly as well, allowing lives like James's and Hamlin's to be saved.
"I'm so happy for the James family that he was able to come through that safely and made it through. I don't know the particulars of the case, but incidents like that are the reason why we do these labs," Saulan said. "These are things you never want to see happen, and it frightens the heck out of you as a health care provider. But you get beyond that initial fright, you jump into action, your training plays in, and you know exactly what to do. You're in training, you're in practice mode, you just take care of business. You get that patient the best chance they have at survival by what you've learned and spent time doing."
It's not just for athletes, however. Cleveland Clinic encourages everyone to learn CPR and how to use AEDs, because, as they say, you never know when you might need the skills.
Andrew Steckler, Coordinator of the Orthopedic Surgery Skills Lab at the Cleveland Clinic, knows that firsthand. Steckler was at a concert in Pittsburgh last weekend when a man fell to the ground right next to him.
"Just making sure the guy is breathing, checking his pulse, making sure his heart's beating. And if you can try to wake them up, do that. I actually did a sternal rub on him to get him up, and fortunately, it ended up being okay. But it was definitely a scary situation because you really don't know," Steckler said.
Those skills were refreshed at the training course on Thursday, which experts know are important for everyone.
"This can happen to any athlete anywhere, any time. It can happen in track, it can happen in baseball, it can happen in public, at the mall. It can happen in a wedding reception. So using these skills that we develop and train for here today can be used in various environments," Waters said.
To learn more about CPR courses and certification through Cleveland Clinic, click here.
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