Article reposted from WSAWTV7
Author: Rebecca Cardenas
Athletic trainers across the state are better prepared to help your child on the football field in a crisis, after a hands-on training session at Marshfield Clinic in Marshfield Wednesday.
“We have to, as athletic trainers, put ourselves in situations where we’re prepared to deal with the worst thing that can possibly happen on the football field,” Athletic Training Manger Jim Nesbit explained at Wednesdays session.
A response time goal of 15 seconds brings athletic trainers from across the state to the clinic to train every year. “Making these things as close to real life is really the whole point of this training,” Nesbit said.
Nesbit spent Wednesday overseeing licensed trainers while they worked through six possible crisis situation on the field.
“It’s important especially this time of year with football season around the corner that we get hands one with some of the new on-field protocol,” he explained.
One new piece of protocol details prevention, recognition, and treatment of heat illnesses. Heat stroke is one of the leading causes of sudden death during sport, according to the National Athletic Trainer’s Association.
“Some of those injuries are life-threatening and fortunately, those are relatively rare, so we don’t get to practice them very often,” Sam Voigt, a licensed athletic trainer, said.
Voigt explained communication is just as important for athletic trainers off the field as it is for the athletes on it.
“…So we can manage injuries in a very timely fashion and then make sure we assure a safe return to play,” he said.
“Those athletes who are participating really are in our charge while we’re there,” Nesbit said. “So we do our best throught practice and scenarios like this to make sure that if something happens, God forbid, we can take care of them.”
An estimated 3.8 million concussions occur each year in the U.S. as a result of sports and physical activity, according to NATA.