Mass Gathering First Aid

[Timmy]

I've just found out that I’m one of the 85 first aiders who will be attending the Australian Football League Grand Final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. There expecting between 100,000 to 120,000 spectators depending on who gets in. This will be the first time apart from the commonwealth games that the stadium will be packed. As I said there will be 85 first aider a few doctors, nurses and paramedics in attendance also. They just bought 50 new deffibulators to help boost our response times to cardiac arrests. Were normally in attendance of cardiac arrests any were in the stadium within 1 minute of being called. Just a couple of questions do you think its necessary to have that many defibs? and do you think we have enough staff for a max of 120,000 people at one time?

[Guest Beegers]

You can never have too many on standby. The defib should be easily accessible from any area of the field or event so that a pt may be treated in sufficient amount of time.

Having only say 10, wouldn't be enough, Would you know where to find it? How long would it take you to get to it, and then return to the pt with it? The more available in the shortest distance apart is a good thing.

[Spock]

I have worked the Penn State University football games for about 8 years. We have two first aid rooms staffed ALS (one with an MD and two RN's and the other with an RN and paramedic), 5 cardiac squads (two paramedics and two EMT's with full ALS capabilities), one ALS ambulance reserved for the teams (my assignment and a cushy one it is!), two ALS and two BLS ambulances for transports to the hospital, two John Deere gators with stretchers for transport within the stadium, one EMT with an AED for the press box, two bike patrols (two EMT's with an AED each) for the parking lots, and 30 BLS teams (two EMT's each with a stairchair) which cover four stadium sections each. We have at least two if not three doctors for on site medical command not counting the doc in the first aid room. The stadium holds 110,000 and is usually full. In fact, on game day the stadium is the third largest city in Pennsylvania. Total staff numbers 80-90.

Our calls are usually for acute alcohol poisoning, chest pain, seizures, falls, and diabetic problems. We average two cardiac arrests per year and until 3 years ago we had a 100% survival rate (they went home neurologically intact). We attribute that to a quick response by our BLS squads and early CPR. The only death was a 41 year old who was putting up a flag pole to mark his tailgate site for friends when he hit an over head power line with the pole and was electrocuted. I got pulses back after I needled his chest but he died about two weeks later.

50 AED's seems a bit much but I don't know the demographics of your possible patient population. We have everywhere from 18 year old freshman (drunk) to 80 year old alumni who haven't missed a game in 60 years and will skip their lasix so they don't have to go to the bathroom. Of course they wind up going to the hospital in CHF.

Hope that helps. What we experience may not be what you can expect but I can say the vast majority of our calls are alcohol related in one way or another. If we treat a patient in the stands we limit our on scene time to 5 minutes. BLS squads are the first to respond and if the patient can sit up they throw them into the stairchair and move to the nearest exit where the ALS squad meets them. Cardiac arrests in the stands likewise have short scene times. CPR, defib and intubation and then into the stokes basket each ALS squad has and out the door. It is a good system and one of these days I hope to get the boss to publish some data.

Live long and prosper.

Spock

[Timmy]

Thanks for that guys. All 85 first aiders are trainer in Defib, I’m pretty sure that we'll have about 10 - 11 defib teams... There’s 8 first aid posts in the stadium and about 2 out in the grassed area outside. I’m pretty sure they'll have nurses and doctors in the first aid rooms with some paramedics ready if needed in the crowed. We'll have a couple of bike patrols as well as heaps of our normal response teams. For memory I think we average about 1-3 arrests per game. But hopefully all goes well!!!

(BTW I have nothing to do with the command of the event, just a shit kicker so Im not sure of what’s, what lol)

[BushyFromOz]

Timmy, are they St John owned or are they bing mounted in the stadium for public access?

[Timmy]

Timmy, are they St John owned or are they bing mounted in the stadium for public access?

There St John owned... The Metro Fire Brigade changed there brand of AED's so they sold them to St John at a cheap price.

Media Article:

" St John Ambulance volunteers will again look after the thousands of football fans attending the AFL finals at the MCG.

Up to 100 St John volunteers will attend each finals match to respond to any first aid needs. This could be as simple as a cut finger or dehydration, right through to a broken limb or sudden cardiac arrest.

The MFB’s presentation to St John Ambulance of 50 defibrillators will enhance the response capacity as some will be deployed to the MCG and Telstra Dome.

St John spokesman, Peter Cocks, said that St John volunteers are often the unsung heroes at public events. “St John volunteers can expect to treat up to 100 people at each finals match and that could include life saving CPR and defibrillation. The defibrillators presented today by the MFB will find their way to these types of events and that means more capacity for St John volunteers to respond with a better range of equipment.”

“St John volunteers are well trained for these types of events and the real winners are the people who may need their service. We should never forget these first aiders are volunteers giving their time freely to help those in need.”

[renegade334]

The MCG in Melbourne is the second safest public venue in the world to have a cardiac arrest. There is a 76% success rate and CPR has always been given within 2 minutes!

(The safest public venue in the world is the O'Hare Airport in Chicago