Interesting article about a different 'team' at the Vancouver games - the medical team, and their preparations for many different unpleasant scenarios...
www.metronews.ca/toronto/sports/article/332129--finding-answers-to-gruesome-problems-no-one-wants-is-medical-officer-s-jobFinding answers to gruesome problems no one wants is medical officer's jobBy JIM MORRIS / Canadian Press - Oct 6, 2009 VANCOUVER, B.C. - Sometimes, when he's thinking ahead to the 2010 Winter Olympics, Dr. Jack Taunton rolls some gruesome what-ifs around in his head.
What if a hockey player breaks his leg during a game? What if a set of bleachers collapses? What if a gold-medal winning athlete tests positive? What if a major storm blocks the road to Whistler on the same day a bobsled flies off the track? What if an excited fan has a heart attack? What if a pandemic strikes?
Part of Taunton's job as chief medical officer for the Vancouver Olympic organizing committee is to plan for the unthinkable and prepare for what no one hopes will happen.
"You want to be prepared," Taunton said in a recent interview. "You do not want a death, not on my shift.
"And in the anti-doping world, we don't want a positive test because you know what that does to the reputation of those Games."
So far, the International Olympic Committee has been impressed with Vancouver's medical preparations.
"We have been working for six years together now," said Dr. Patrick Schamasch, the IOC's medical and scientific director. "Everything which has been proposed by the medical commission has been followed and in such a way everything we think should be in place, is currently in place."
Taunton, an avid runner and co-founder of the Vancouver Sun Run, brings a wealth of experience to the job.
He's the director of the Allan McGavin Sports Medicine Centre at the University of British Columbia. He also has been head physician for Canadian teams at previous Olympics as well as Pan American and Commonwealth Games.
Taunton's role with the Vancouver organizing committee, known as VANOC, is two fold. He will co-ordinate both the medical and anti-doping operations.
VANOC has budgeted $9.7 million for medical services at the Games. A staff of about 900, which includes doctors, physiotherapists and nurses, will tend to medical needs.
The anti-doping staff of around 750 will include control officers, chaperones and collection officers.
The main function of the anti-doping staff is the collection of urine or blood, either after competition or from target testing.
The samples will be processed at a laboratory located at the Richmond Olympic Oval, the long-track speedskating venue. The facility will be operated by Montreal's anti-doping lab, which is accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
During the Games, the medical staff will supply care not only to athletes, but to workers, volunteers, spectators and the media.
The Games are expected to attract 5,500 athletes and team officials, 10,000 accredited media and 25,000 volunteers.
"Over the Games, we will have approximately 8,000 medical encounters," said Taunton. "You have to be prepared for everything, from sunburn and ice burns to eye infections, significant lacerations, to really devastating, life-threatening conditions."
The nature of winter sports opens the door for more injuries than a summer Games. There's the rib-snapping crush of a bodycheck in hockey, the knee-wrenching impact of a fall in skiing,
the tangle of limbs in a short-track speedskating collision."There is definitely more trauma," said Taunton. "There's more chance for torn knee ligaments, fractures, closed-head injuries are more common.
"Although we have one-third the size in terms of total numbers (than a summer Games), our medical staff need to be more prepared for trauma and significant injury."
Information gathered from the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin showed 50 per cent of the medical needs involved workforce and volunteers, said Taunton. About 20 per cent of the incidents involved athletes while 10 to 12 per cent was media.
During the Games, 1,000-square-metre clinics will be built both at the athletes village in Vancouver and in Whistler, about 120 kilometres north.
The clinics are multi-disciplinary with emergency services and various types of medical specialist coverage including pharmacy, therapy, imagining (X-ray, MRI, CT scan, ultrasound), dental and eye care.
"Our job is to do as much as we can at the venue, and in our two polyclinics, to prevent unnecessary admissions to hospitals," said Taunton.
Any athlete, or member of the Olympic family, needing hospital care will be sent to Vancouver General Hospital. Spectators and media will be directed to St. Paul's Hospital.
Whistler, where the sliding and skiing events will be staged, presents its own challenges.
The resort community does not have a facility to perform surgery. A storm could block the highway or prevent a person being transported by air to Vancouver.
The solution will be two, specially designed 16-metre tractor trailers. One has two operating rooms. The other has 72 hours worth of operating supplies.
"We will have a surgical team there, in case, and hopefully we would never need them," said Taunton.
Schamasch said another of VANOC's responsibilities is to supply dental and eye care to visiting athletes.
"Many countries in the past use the Games to treat the athletes because they don't have the means to do it in their own country," he said.
Taunton and his staff also must be prepared in case there's an outbreak of flu such as the H1N1 virus.
VANOC will be working closely with the Vancouver Coastal Health to report and monitor any cases.
"We have public health nurses and public health officers," Taunton said. "They will be able to do rapid influenza testing. They will be able to do vaccinations."
Each morning during the Games, Taunton and Mike Wilkinson, VANOC's director of medical services, will meet the head of the IOC medical commission.
They will give an update on the local air quality and report any issues involving food or water in the athletes villages or local hotels.
They also will inform the IOC of any illnesses in the villages, around Vancouver and in B.C.
VANOC is also working with the B.C. government on plans to react to any incident involving mass casualties, be it a terrorist attack, accident or natural disaster.
"Our medical team, which is inside the fence, would do what we could," said Taunton. "Once we get overrun . . . we then would notify and activate the provincial emergency action plan."
Stockpiles of medical equipment, stretchers and blankets have been stored around Vancouver and the Olympic corridor in case of emergency.
When most Olympic organizers talk about a successful Games, they mention what they hope will happen.
Taunton talks about things he doesn't want to see.
"A good Olympics would be we have no mass casualty event, no major vehicle accident, no major infectious disorder," he said.
Today VANOC named the venue announcers and color commentators: and DANY LEMAY will call the action for short track 