Mar 28, 2011 at 05:19 PM
I'm a retired paramedic (it was sooooo lucrative) and have to second just about everything Marc said. Can you help? Stop, especially if it's a teammate. Of course, every member doesn't have to stop. But if you're right there, you should. Did you see it and can inform EMS? Stop. Are you standing around gawking? Don't. A guy crashed ahead of me and probably broke a clavicle in a cx race this year. By the time I came upon him there were people around and an ambulance on the way. I didn't need to stop and crowd the course any further when there was nothing I could've really done besides make a piecemeal sling that EMS would've immediately replaced. There were no open wounds and he was breathing. Without supplies, if someone's already lending support, you should probably make room. I tried to help Sniadowski last year at his finish line crash, but other than handing his friend some dressings for his hand and giving him a quick look over, he had his friends/teammates there and there's nothing you can do for a punctured lung, etc. on the spot.
I'd like to say that the "blind spot" swerving gets better as you move up in categories, but in the 3/4's it can still be bad. It's as if people have no peripheral vision, or even if they do, the split nanosecond they are past your head it's like you've ceased to exist. On Sunday, there were at least a handful of times when people started to come over on me right after they barely gotten by my bottom bracket. It's like they have no perception of speed/distance and it's "out of sight, out of mind". It's unbelievable really. What's it called, "object permanence"? The idea that before about 8 months old, infants have no realization of the fact objects that can't be seen, touched, or heard, still exist?
Anyway, hope you recover quickly, Mitch. Take care,
-j.
Oh, one more thing. Make SURE someone has called 911. You wouldn't believe the times when a group is standing around assuming someone else has already called. If you are first on the scene and need to perform any sort of action on the patient/victim immediately, point to a specific person and tell them to call 911. Don't just say it out loud and expect someone to do it. Often, you literally have to command an individual to try and make sure someone is actually following through. Concurrently, if you're late to the scene, ask to make sure someone has called, or go ahead and call as well. 911 will know immediately if the incident has been reported. Or they should....sometimes things get "lost in translation", but that's another story...
I'd like to say that the "blind spot" swerving gets better as you move up in categories, but in the 3/4's it can still be bad. It's as if people have no peripheral vision, or even if they do, the split nanosecond they are past your head it's like you've ceased to exist. On Sunday, there were at least a handful of times when people started to come over on me right after they barely gotten by my bottom bracket. It's like they have no perception of speed/distance and it's "out of sight, out of mind". It's unbelievable really. What's it called, "object permanence"? The idea that before about 8 months old, infants have no realization of the fact objects that can't be seen, touched, or heard, still exist?
Anyway, hope you recover quickly, Mitch. Take care,
-j.
Oh, one more thing. Make SURE someone has called 911. You wouldn't believe the times when a group is standing around assuming someone else has already called. If you are first on the scene and need to perform any sort of action on the patient/victim immediately, point to a specific person and tell them to call 911. Don't just say it out loud and expect someone to do it. Often, you literally have to command an individual to try and make sure someone is actually following through. Concurrently, if you're late to the scene, ask to make sure someone has called, or go ahead and call as well. 911 will know immediately if the incident has been reported. Or they should....sometimes things get "lost in translation", but that's another story...
