The football field is a place to compete and have fun, but there can also be injuries which is why it’s important to be prepared.
“It’s good to do this every year as a refresher," said Kevin Williams, Paso Robles High School athletic trainer. "It’s good to make sure our coaches and our staff know where emergency equipment are we know how to open whatever gates that we need to open to allow ambulance and fire paramedics to take over.”
Paso Robles High School reviewed its emergency action plan, while conducting various training scenarios including sudden cardiac arrest, displaced fracture, head and neck injury, and heat stroke protocol.
The Paso Robles Fire Department was also on site to establish how a typical response would go.
“They’ve started a response and then we come in and we’ve kind of conclude that response so they get the person stabilized if they can, we’ll come in and make sure that they are stable and we’ll transfer them to the ambulance gurney and transfer them to the hospital," said Brian Lewis, Paso Robles Fire battalion chief. "So, there’s a lot of teamwork combined in it.”
“A lot of times Paso Fire is going to be the first responder, followed by SLO ambulance," Williams said. "So we want to make that the people that are going to be our first responders are here, they give us feedback see where we can improve.”
Head Football Coach Matt Carroll told KSBY News quick responses are vital which is why they’ve been doing this training for the past three years.
“Practicing it makes it really easy for when the emergency actually comes up and our athletic trainer is fantastic," Carroll said. "He’s had us simulate this over the years. Two years ago we had a broken leg on the practice field and we were able to get our kid in an ambulance with his parent in record time."
Although Saturday's exercise was focused on football, Williams said the training is used for all sports.
“Sudden cardiac can happen on the football field, it can happen in the volleyball gym," Williams said. "So, all of our coaching staff knows what to do in an emergency situation.”
