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Sports Med Questions and Answers
RON ESTEBAN
What can I do to start getting ready to help in sports medicine?
The first step may be taking a First Aid and CPR course, which is offered by several different providers such as the American Red Cross and the American Heart Association. You're never to young to get certified in First Aid and CPR, and it would give you a good introduction into how to help other people.
Besides getting certified in First Aid and CPR, you should talk to your school's athletic trainer and ask how you can volunteer to help in the athletic training room or just "shadow" them after school. That's a good time to see a lot of different things since that's the time most sports are just getting ready for practice.
Not all high schools have athletic trainers, and hardly ever is there an athletic trainer in an elementary or middle school. If you school doesn't have an athletic trainer, you can still get some experience by volunteering at a Physical Therapy clinic or a fitness center.
What do you like most about sports medicine?
There are a lot of things I like most about sports medicine. Working with athletes is a lot of fun, and when an athlete gets hurt, I also enjoy the challenge of helping them get healthy so that they are able to play again.
We also do a lot of traveling during the season, so I've been able to see many different places around the country. I probably wouldn't have gone to many of these places if I hadn't been an athletic trainer with our teams.
Lastly, I've got one of the best seats in the house for our games! I enjoy the competition just as much as the athletes, and even though I'm not actually competing, I get nervous and excited just like they do.
What is an orthopedic surgeon and what is a team doctor?
The team doctor is the doctor who takes care of all the athletes that are injured. When an athlete needs to see a doctor, the team doctor is whom they see. If an athlete gets hurt, the doctor sends him to the athletic trainers for treatment and rehabilitation. Once the athlete completes his rehabilitation, the athletic trainers send him back to the doctor to get approval for return to play. Team doctors can be general practitioners, orthopedic surgeons, or any other type of doctor. Usually the doctor will have some background in sports medicine, though.
An orthopedic surgeon is a doctor that can repair bones and soft tissue structures (i.e. muscles, tendons, and ligaments). Many times the team doctor will be an orthopedic surgeon, since most injuries that occur in sports are related to bones or soft tissue damage. Orthopedic surgeons can perform surgeries, administer stitches, and recommend rehabilitation programs for athletes in addition to other duties.
The team doctor and an orthopedic surgeon can be the same person or can work as a team to keep the athletes healthy. Team doctors, orthopedic surgeons, athletic trainers, and physical therapists all work as a team to prevent and rehabilitate athletes' injuries as they occur.
Do Virginia Tech players get scared when they go to a hospital?
Yes, sometimes Virginia Tech players do get scared when they go to the hospital. Even though they are athletes and are expected to be "tough", they are normal people and can get scared just like anybody else.
What is the worst injury you ever treated? Or the funniest injury? Or the grossest?
The worst injury I ever treated was a broken neck. When I was an undergraduate student athletic trainer we had a football player get hit in the neck during a drill. We called the ambulance and stabilized his head and neck until the EMS could get there. He had to go through over a year of physical therapy, and is almost completely back to normal now. He no longer plays football, but he hopes to become a football coach one day.
The grossest injury I ever treated was a boil on a man's back. It was leaking pus and goo and it was really disgusting. Needless to say, I wore two pairs of gloves and used a lot of gauze!!!
AMY DEVERE
When a baseball or softball players has a "dead arm" what does that mean?
A common injury among baseball and softball players, who have played a number of games over the years, is "dead arm" syndrome. To understand what this is, we must first understand the shoulder. The shoulder is a ball and socket joint, which means that if you make a "C" (socket) with one hand, make a fist (ball) with the other, and put the fist inside the "C", this is what your shoulder looks like. Now move your fist around and that is the movement of the shoulder.
When players experience "dead arm" what is happening is the ball has slipped out of the socket. If the ball stays out of the socket, then the shoulder has dislocated. If it slips right back in to the socket, it has subluxed. This is what happens with "dead arm." The athlete releases the ball and will feel pain along with popping and clicking until the ball finds the correct position in the socket. While this is going on the nerves in the arm will tingle and give the player a "dead" feeling where they feel like their arm is numb. This will usually only happen with athletes that have "loose" shoulders caused by weak muscles surrounding the "ball and socket."
The shoulder will continue to sublux until the athlete strengthens the surrounding muscles, which are called rotator cuff muscles. They do this with a variety of exercises in the training room and the weight room. Sometimes the athlete does not get better by just strengthening their shoulder and they have to have surgery to fix their shoulder. There are other sports where "dead arm" can occur. Racquet sports, swimming, and even push-ups can cause "dead arm" if the athlete has a loose shoulder. So when building those bulging biceps, make sure you work on those rotator cuff muscles, too.
