“To 90 degrees at the count of three. 3-2-1 up!”
From properly moving a student athlete with a possible spinal injury to treating heat-related illness to handling cardiac emergencies, athletic staff at West Michigan high schools and colleges train for it all. More than 40 trainers, coaches, volunteers and athletic directors are also training with Life EMS Ambulance paramedics and sports medicine teams from Corewell Health and the University of Michigan-West.
“It’s so important for us to know what each other’s roles are so that we can best serve a student athlete in a time of emergency and have some kind of communication ahead of time so that’s not the first time we’re meeting each other.”
Mark Meijer is the founder and president of Life EMS Ambulance which has hosted the joint training for ten years. He says its vital everyone is working from the same playbook when an emergency happens.
“We don’t get in each other’s way. We compliment each other with skill sets and that’s huge.”
Ed Kornoelje is the Director of Sports Medicine at U of M Health West and says this adds another layer to the training athletic staff already does.
“There are new techniques, new boards, new things that everybody needs to know about so when you need it at an event, this isn’t the first time you’re seeing it. You’ve already had some experience with it.”
The training includes classroom review and hands-on practice scenarios, as well as discussions of where emergency equipment is located at various athletic facilities.
