First Aid and injury question

[Aussie Willy]

We sometimes have bad injuries at our rink in the public session. However I am really peeved with the attitude of staff who work there when something serious happens.

Anyway on the weekend, a guy in a public session fell over and dislocated his knee cap. He put it back in place himself, but was writhing around on the ice in agony. Also he was pretty big so was not going to be easy to get off the ice. I went up the office and asked if they could bring a stretcher out to help the guy off the ice, to which the response was "No we can't because it would be too emotionally stressful". I kind of just looked at the guy like "you have to be joking". He did not appreciate my look and obviously thought I was over reacting. However this rink has lost it's public liability insurance previously (but did manage to get it back and could re-open), but I am kind of thinking that as a trained first-aid officer I always have to assume the worst has happened and a stretcher would have the most suitable way to get the person off the ice.

Also a couple of weeks ago a woman damaged her ankle very badly (I don't think anything was broken) but I asked her if she wanted an ambulance to which she said yes, however the rink staff refused to ring for one (they did let her friend use the rink phone to call for one) and also the first comment the same staff member as above made "Well we will have to get her boot off". Thankfully he waited until the ambulance arrived and they could remove the boot. But I have seen him take boots off injured ankles without establishing whether the limb is broken or the severity of the injury. I must say if he did it to me I would certainly be telling him to _____ off.

But with the lack of care taken with injured people at skating, am I over reacting, or does this rink seriously owe a duty of care in these situations and should take the greatest precautions possible (including stretching injured legs off the ice)? Can they be sued for not handling a situation with due care? I would have thought the way these situations are handled could definately lead to them being sued.

[JDC1]

Our rink goes the other WAY atleast during lessons. The coaches take falls very seriously and people are told to stay down and then they talk to them and make the move their limbs etc. During public sessions the rink guards are a joke but the management does take it seriously and I have seen them call an ambulance atleast once and I've heard they've done it before. When I fell on my tail bone (which hurt like heck) they got me ice and were very sympathetic and when I cut my finger with my blade they cleaned the cut and gave me band aids and recommended a tetanus shot so they do try to give comprehensive advice/care.

[garyc254]

At my favorite rink, the staff will help by supplying ice packs and muscle, but if an injury seems more severe they first call one of the city park rangers (who are in radio contact and very quick to respond). He or she (they have some paramedic training) will ascertain the severity of the injury. If they are still concerned about moving the skater, they call the paramedics and ambulance.

The "regular" staff will normally not remove any injured person from the rink. The rangers can call for that, though.

[quarkiki2]

Because our rink is in a mall, if there is an injury mall security is called. The security people all have first aid training and are designated first responders. If they feel an ambulance is needed, they call one.

Recently our club purchased a back board to retrieve people from the ice if they need to be immobilized. Our club president was an emergency room doctor (before he was shipped out to Turkey in a National Guard Medical Unit). Amazingly he has been on the ice when the worst accidents have happened: broken legs, concussions, and a spinal compresion fracture. He was the one who suggested the back board because they had to get someone with a leg fracture off the ice in a blanket.

We've had a couple of sessions of first aid training through the club, just the basics, and all of our rink staff is required to attend. We've also suggeted doing CPR training as a club, though because we're in a mall there are difibrulators available and the Mall security have all been trained to use them.

[sk8clean]

I have now skated at two different rinks. The first one would call the ambulance at the drop of a hat. I sure the ems people could drive to the rink in their sleep. Where I now skate I have never seen anyone get hurt seriously enough where an ambulance was needed. But they are really nice when you do hurt yourself giving you ice and asking if there is anything they can do for you.

[Kelli]

As an ice monitor who's seen some injuries, I've been pondering a similar issue. I think all ice guards should receive training from the rink in first aid and CPR (professional rescuer level, only because that deals with infants, children, and adults). Busy rinks should always have someone around with a higher level of knowledge.

In the past few weeks, I've dealt with a knocked out tooth and a very badly cut finger. I am trained in first aid and CPR (though not currently certified, but I'll fix that this week), and for both injuries I felt the rink did not handle them appropriately. It also happened that these two injuries occurred when only two guards were present, and not knowing the other guard's first aid knowledge and common sense, I chose to handle the situations myself rather than let him deal with them. I also discovered that our first aid kit is not really that great. I spend a lot of time with EMTs (most are good friends, though one is just really hot, but that's neither here nor there), and though constantly handling every incident as 'worse case' scenario sometimes seems over dramatic, I think most rinks have a lot to learn as far as dealing with injuries.

The times I have been injured on the ice (not at the above rink), I was very well taken care of, and this is partly where my frustration at the rink I work at comes from. I cut my foot through my boot pretty badly last January (yes, you've probably heard this story before), and one of the rink employees cleaned the cut and put butterfly band-aids on to hold it together. At the ER, I was told that if I hadn't come in, the guy had done a good enough job closing the cut that it would have healed fine on its own. (And this was not a little cut - I cut partly through the tendon. Then I got 6 stitches and antibiotics.)

Overall, I think rinks have a moral obligation to provide high quality first aid, but from my discussion with EMTs, there is no legal obligation. Of course, that's not going to stop anyone from suing, and once a small community rink is hit with a lawsuit, other rinks will shape up pretty quickly. Unfortunately, I shouldn't have to come to that.