BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Damar Hamlin's injury put the spotlight on emergency responses at sporting events. Although we see and hear about severe injuries and incidents like Hamlin's more in the professional sports world it happens at the youth level too.
Between 1 in 50,000 and 1 in 80,000 young athletes die of sudden cardiac arrest every year, according to the Mayo Clinic. More than 1 in 5 traumatic brain injuries in children in the US are tied to sports and recreational activities, according to Standford Medicine.
Coaches in New York need to at least be certified in emergency first aid, CPR and AED, according to the State Department of Education. D'Youville University hosted a special training session to help youth sports coaches learn the skills they need to respond to life-threatening situations.
The coaches and trainers' high-speed thinking and decision making was put to the test during the course.
"There's always somebody that ends up on the floor after a hit or after getting hit with a shot or something," said Jack Wilson, D'Youville Head Men's Lacrosse Coach. "They'll get up 9 times out of 10 but it's scary for that second or two and it's something that we all have to be prepared for."
In an effort to keep the lives of high school and college athletes safe during emergencies, D'Youville University is partnering up with Sports Medicine Concepts to offer "Life-saving Core4 Training."
"A lot of times the training at coaches and AT's receive have to do with CPR, AED, emergency action plans but really not hands on experience with traumatic injuries," said Ona Halladay, Executive Director of Intercollegiate Athletics & Recreation.
Coaches and trainers went through a series of 10-minute simulations were it was all hands on deck. They were forced to communicate and assess injuries on the field.
A large part of the Core4 Training is to make coaches and trainers realize how important clear communication is when it comes to life-threatening conditions like cervical spine injuries, isolated head trauma, truncal trauma and cardiac arrest.
"For me personally I probably annoy my athletic trainers too much and having too much of a dialogue with my trainer Cat, she's great," said Wilson. "To me it's too easy to have a great relationship with them and to be working 100% on the same page at all times. It makes it really easy and it makes for a bunch of great friends too."
While Sports Medicine Concepts professionals said most of these simulations represent the 1% of injuries these coaches and trainers may never see, Hamlin's recent injury is a reminder to never say never when it comes to cardiac trauma at any level of the game.
"Unfortunately, injuries like cardiac arrest happen in little league a lot, in men's and women's lacrosse a lot, in hockey a lot," said Halladay. "People don't really talk about it. We saw it happen in football on a national stage but it does happen pretty consistently within youth sports and nobodies trained to handle it."
However, after the training Monday night, all who attended the Core4 Training knows how to.
"I'd much rather take all the training I need to take instead of having to call somebody's parents with bad news," said Wilson.
