Facilities labelled abysmal after runner nearly dies

Press, 20 July 1987, Page 38

Facilities labelled abysmal after runner nearly dies

PA Zagreb, Yugoslavia Medical facilities, labelled as abysmal by doctors after the near death of a British runner through heat exhaustion, are the subject of increasing criticism from medical staff at the World Student Games in Zagreb. The almost farcical lack of standard medical equipment was highlighted when 10,000 metres athlete Andy Bristow of Great Britain collapsed before entering the final lap of his race. Yesterday a group of team doctors from the United States, Canada, the Soviet Union, New Zealand, Great Britain and others met to voice concerns that the facilities should be improved in time for the marathon today.

Bristow had run well until after the half-way mark when he began to struggle in the temperature at the windless Dinamo Stadium well into the 90s. He then collapsed and lay convulsing on the track until officials strapped him into a stretcher and carried him

to the medical centre at the stadium. Canadian head physician, Jack Taunton, saw what had happened and went to the centre to offer assistance. Because Taunton was known to the Yugoslav officials he was allowed in, while the Great Britain team doctor, in spite of wearing official medical accreditation, was denied access to her team member by security for up to 15 minutes. “We (the Canadian medical team) had already created a liaison in the medical facility so that we would have access into it,” Taunton said. “We already knew that they didn’t have ice, we had brought ice with us, and we already knew that they didn’t have towels. "As it was Doctor Dods (the British team doctor) couldn’t get access to the track, she couldn’t get access to the medical area. It took her at least 10 or 15 minutes to get to where I was with the athlete.”

Taunton recognised that the athlete was dangerously overheated and unconscious by this

"I had my one towel, I had my supply of what was left of our ice which we had been using for our own injured athletes during the afternoon. “The other frustration was that although I think that a lot of the supplies that we needed were probably in that medical area I don’t think that they (the Yugoslavs) had actually rehearsed where things were and how they were going to do it in an emergency.” Tauton said the Yugoslav officials did not have a thermometer to make a diagnosis; the only ice available was in chemical packs which had caused skin burns; and they had no needles, let along flexible ones, to administer saline solution into the athlete.

Bristow was eventually taken to hospital for intensive care, where his condition was finally brought under control. The whole process had taken some 30 minutes, after the first collapse. But it took about four hours for Bristow to be out of danger.

Bristow’s collapse was not the first incident involving heat exhaustion to underline the dangerous level of preparation. The day before, New Zealand 10,000 m runner Marguerite Buist had collapsed at the end of her race.

Although Buist’s case was far less serious, New Zealand team doctor Andrew Ness had been frustrated by the same conditions — security blocking access to the medical area and the almost total lack of facilities.

“I warned the other doctors,” Ness said. “I spoke to the doctor in charge of the doping, who was the only one who could understand English, and he agreed that unless they made big changes, there was going to be big trouble. And one day later the English chap nearly died. No changes had been made.

“This (facilities) is under equipped. I will refuse to accept any reassurances given by the Yugoslavs unless I see it with my own eyes. They still have no concept of heat injuries. ” Ness said.