BRYANSFORD ladies’ manager Chris Rooney expressed his thanks to Kilcoo GAC’s medical staff after they tended to a ‘Ford player who suffered a back injury during Saturday night’s Down Ladies Senior Championship game.
The injury occurred during the early stages of the Group B round one clash at St Patrick’s Park, when the Bryansford player landed awkwardly on her back.
Shortly after, the game was abandoned and an ambulance was called at around 7.20pm, but it didn’t arrive on the pitch until almost 10.20pm.
“I’d like to express my thanks to all those who helped during the incident that occurred during Saturday’s championship match, we appreciate the help from the Kilcoo medical team and we thank the ambulance service for the support and help that they provided.
“We appreciate the pressures that the ambulance service are under, but we’re very satisfied that the staff that came to help us were very supportive, effective and helpful,” Rooney said.
Daniel Fettes, who has been a medic at Kilcoo for 34 years, tended to the stricken player alongside Kilcoo club nurse Maria Grant.
Commenting on the incident, Daniel said he knew straight away that the player had suffered a bad injury and decided to treat her with precaution.
“The player was in mid-air and she landed down on her coccyx, you knew straight away that it was a bad enough injury.
“Because of the pain she was suffering at the time and where the injury was, you just couldn’t take that chance of moving her, you don’t have the facilities or the equipment to do that.”
The former ambulance technician added: “It’s different if it was a broken leg or a broken arm, you can be taken off the pitch, but it had to be treated as a spinal injury.
“We just had to keep her warm and keep an eye on her stats; her blood pressure, her pulse, her oxygen levels, just to make sure nothing had changed.”
In the full story they explain why the incident highlights issues with the health service.