HICKORY, N.C. – Nearly 70 athletic trainers, coaches, emergency medical professionals and health care providers were on hand for the Sideline Emergent Medical Management training event at Lenoir-Rhyne University on Tuesday.

The event was sponsored by Frye Regional Sports Medicine and hosted by Lenoir-Rhyne University. It featured participants from more than 40 area agencies, including hospitals, clinics, emergency medical services and 13 high schools from Catawba, Burke, Caldwell and Alexander counties.

Preparing for the worst

The event was split between lectures and hands-on training in responding to emergency situations. Hands-on training stations included proper athletic equipment removal, safe athlete lifting, rolling and transport techniques, emergency cooling techniques and general medical management for sideline emergencies.

Jeff Hinshaw, a physician assistant who presented at the event, said hands-on training is critical for athletic trainers. “Anytime you can rehearse something, you’re going to be better at it when the chips are actually down,” Hinshaw said.

He said most trainers have limited experience with catastrophic injuries, but they need to be prepared to respond to them.

“Ninety percent of what we do is broken bones and things along that line, sprains, strains,” Hinshaw said. “But then all of the sudden, the sky does fall and there is that cardiac arrest or that broken neck or that catastrophic injury and that athletic trainer is going to be the first line of medical care. … That’s why it makes this seamless interface with emergency services so important because (athletic trainers) are the true first responders for that athletic emergency.”

Getting prepared for August

Frye’s Regional Manager of Sports Medicine Nick Seiler said Frye Regional works with Lenoir-Rhyne as well as several Hickory area high schools to provide training, but this is the first time they have sponsored an event like this. He said it was important to him to get EMS, providers and trainers together to get on the same page.

“If they (EMS) know where we (athletic trainers) are from a skill, knowledge and a training standpoint, and we know where they are coming from, it makes the whole process much smoother, managing that athlete and making sure they get the care they need,” he said.

During the lecture, Hinshaw, Seiler and other presenters cover the five H’s of sports medicine — head, heart, heat, hemoglobin and health history.

Presenters went over the signs of concussion, concussion protocol and ways to avoid concussions. Hinshaw said research shows that 1 in 300 student athletes has a potentially life-threatening heart condition. He said that since many of these athletes are undiagnosed, there is a good chance most athletic trainers are working with a ticking time bomb even if they don’t know it.

Chris Ina, director of athletic training at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, presented on heat-related illness. He said that heat-related illness is the No. 1 killer of young athletes and went over proper protocol for dealing with heatstroke. He also talked about hemoglobin or exertional sickling, a potentially life-threatening complication for athletes with the sickle cell trait.

Finally, Dr. Jolene Henning, chair of the department of athletic training at High Point University, covered health history. She went over protocol to help athletes manage conditions such as asthma and diabetes. She also covered anaphylactic reactions.

Seiler said he was encouraged to see so many agencies represented at the event and to see so many community members attend the training.

“Especially at this time of year when we are ramping up for high school football throughout the summer,” he said. “Now is the time that we want to have a training like this to bring these people together, so when it comes to Aug. 1 and all high school sports are kicking off, we have our training and simulations out of the way. … We can all come together when we have an emergency.”