HS Principal denies ambulance field access to injured player.

[Seenterman]

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/south_bay&id=7791642

Del Mar High School principal Liz Seabury apparently values her football field more than the actual players. 14 year old player gets injured and receives a concussion, ambulance is called, but instead of being allowed to drive on to the field to extradite the player as quickly as possible the principal denies them being allowed to drive on to the field and instead has the EMT's haul a gurney 75 yards down field (and then back I'm assuming) to get to the injured player.

Principal Liz Seabury explains this by stating:

she was following district orders, banning motorized vehicles on the school's recently remodeled field.

Obviously someone isn't very good at "critical thinking".

[Monkeyleg]

I wonder if the state or local law has any "rules" regarding denying or obstructing medical treatment?

This kid should hire John Edwards. He could retire before he graduates.

[Sergeant Bob]

Why don't they just have one of those football helmets which you can drive?

[HankB]

I wonder if the state or local law has any "rules" regarding denying or obstructing medical treatment?

This kid should hire John Edwards. He could retire before he graduates.

Pretty much my thoughts . . . I strongly suspect most states have laws regarding interference with emergency personnel.

[MechAg94]

My first thought on seeing the title of this thread was "why is it even the Principal's decision?"

I still have that question.  Was she standing at the vehicle entrance saying "you can't park there, you have to park over here".  It doesn't make much sense to me. 

[grampster]

That decision is right up there with "Zero Tolerance".  Typical bureaucrat...."It's the rule!"

[Bob F.]

Obviously, i wan't the lead medic on this call. Depending on the severity of the injury, she'd have had to jump out of the way. We also carried bolt cuttersd for locked gates. Most football injuries actually came off on a gurney, only drove onto the field once, IIRC.

Stay safe.
Bob

[roo_ster]

My first thought on seeing the title of this thread was "why is it even the Principal's decision?"

I still have that question.  Was she standing at the vehicle entrance saying "you can't park there, you have to park over here".  It doesn't make much sense to me.  

This.  She was actively malevolent.  If she was merely a coward, she could have made herself scarce, but nooooooooo!

Obviously, i wan't the lead medic on this call. Depending on the severity of the injury, she'd have had to jump out of the way. We also carried bolt cuttersd for locked gates. Most football injuries actually came off on a gurney, only drove onto the field once, IIRC.

Thank you.


Now, there are very few football injuries so severe that an extra 5 minutes hoofing it would make a difference.  But, a general policy of "Get the injured player medical care ASAP" ought to be the default setting.  

Were I the principal, I mighta been out there with flags & lights waving them on through.  If the district gives me guff, I'll take it in the face and tell them I'd do the same next time.  I suspect the kids' parents would take my side and images of me doing my best to see one of my students is cared for ain;t gonna hurt.  This principal sounds so stupid she needs to be reminded to breathe.

(Edited for faulty bracketage)

[Regolith]

But after 911 was called, he had to lay and wait for emergency workers to haul a gurney 75 yards downfield.

I'm a little surprised they didn't have the ambulance on hand in the first place.  We almost always had an ambulance and a sheriff's deputy at our games when I was playing HS football.

Also, anyone know what the field setup was like?  If it was similar to most HS football fields, it had a track running around it.  I wonder why, if they couldn't go on the field, they didn't just drive around the track to the point closest to the player.  Or if the idiot principal prevented them from doing that, too.

Edit: just watched the video.  There does indeed appear to be a track running around it.  Now I'm really wondering what the hell was going on...

[CNYCacher]

I didn't watch the video or know much about the story, but it seems to me you could  push a gurney 75 yards in about half the time it takes to argue with someone about a locked gate.  This of course assumes that said person has the key to the lock immediately available.

[MechAg94]

The problem is:  Why did they have to argue with someone at all?  Someone should have been there holding the gate open.

I went to a smaller high school with 400 or so kids.  We always had an ambulance on standby near the field during games. 

[Monkeyleg]

but it seems to me you could  push a gurney 75 yards in about half the time it takes to argue with someone about a locked gate

I"d guess that it takes longer to push a gurney when the patient has a head injury, as the paramedics have to be careful not to make the injury worse.

[KD5NRH]

This of course assumes that said person has the key to the lock immediately available.

Around here, the ambulance always takes one of these along as a "universal master key."

If the gate isn't unlocked quickly enough, it gets removed, and whoever was supposed to unlock it may be billed for the cost of buffing out the chrome afterward.

[Bob F.]

KD5: Yeah, that works, too!

[MicroBalrog]

This principal sounds so stupid she needs to be reminded to breathe.

Perhaps this isthe problem. People keep reminding her.

[AmbulanceDriver]

KD5, we usually carry one of those around with us too. 

But on the rare instances we don't, our Ambulances do also carry one of these:



It's pretty impressive the damage you can do with a Halligan tool.

[KD5NRH]

It's pretty impressive the damage you can do with a Halligan tool.

It's a little harder to justify using it on the principal.  If the truck runs over her, she was just in the way.

[BlueStarLizzard]

I'm a little surprised they didn't have the ambulance on hand in the first place.  We almost always had an ambulance and a sheriff's deputy at our games when I was playing HS football.

Also, anyone know what the field setup was like?  If it was similar to most HS football fields, it had a track running around it.  I wonder why, if they couldn't go on the field, they didn't just drive around the track to the point closest to the player.  Or if the idiot principal prevented them from doing that, too.

Edit: just watched the video.  There does indeed appear to be a track running around it.  Now I'm really wondering what the hell was going on...

i was thinking the same thing... why not use the track and there was always EMTs with a bus at our games. it only made sense, after all, between the sports injuries, dumb butt teenagers crawling all over the place and the poor band nerds in heavy uniforms.