For immediate release: June 21, 2007
Contact: Emily Wofford Cobb
Communications Manager
775-784-6006
ecobb@medicine.nevada.edu
Physicians partner with Justin Sports Medicine, REMSA and Reno Rodeo Association medical volunteers to provide daily care
RENO, Nev.—For rodeo competitors it’s not a question of if you’ll get hurt, but rather a question of when and how badly. There’s no doubt rodeo is dangerous, but cowboys and cowgirls simply accept injuries as apart of their sport.
Luckily, competitors of the 2007 Reno Rodeo have a crack team of medical professionals to see to their injuries if they get hurt during competition. Physicians from the University of Nevada School of Medicine have teamed up with Justin Sports Medicine, REMSA and Reno Rodeo Association medical volunteers to provide care not only to competing cowboys and cowgirls but also first aid to fans sitting in the grandstands or attending the adjoining carnival.
Trainers from Justin Sports Medicine provide the bulk of services for competitors while REMSA provides emergency transport for both competitors and fans. School of Medicine physicians, residents and students along with medical volunteers from the Reno Rodeo Association provide physician assistance wherever help is needed.
“The Reno Rodeo is the best covered rodeo I work,” says Andy Hopkins, rodeo medical director and physical therapist with Justin Sports Medicine. “It’s nice to have so many services available to our competitors and such a variety of medical expertise.”
The Reno Rodeo medical team certainly embodies a wide variety of medical expertise and backgrounds—from physical therapists and sports trainers to physicians and emergency medical technicians. The team also treats a wide variety of injuries. Competitors’ injuries range from sprained ankles and broken fingers to broken jaws and torn skin. Injuries in the grandstands and carnival range from heat exhaustion and cardiac arrest to broken bones. In addition to the main medical staging area used mostly by athletes, automatic external defibrillators manned by teams of two are staged at intervals along the grandstands to provide ready access to anyone who may fall ill.
“We really see a wide variety of injuries,” says Brad Lee, M.D., an adjunct clinical professor of internal medicine at the School of Medicine. “The rodeo is a great training ground for our students. They see injuries sustained by athletes competing in extreme sports as well as a variety of ailments from people coming to us from the grandstands and carnival.”
In addition to Lee, Carol Scott, M.D., assistant director of the University Student Health Center, and Daniel Spogen, M.D., chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine, also provide medical assistance at the rodeo as well as work with student and resident volunteers. Scott, who also serves as director of the new Sports Medicine Fellowship in Reno, is particularly interested in adding the rodeo to the list of training opportunities available for fellows.
“Not only do you see a different type of sports injury in rodeo competitors, you see a different kind of athlete,” says Scott. “Cowboys aren’t paid to sit in the shoots—the only way they make money is to go out and compete. When you treat competitors at the rodeo, you’re treating their injuries but also helping them prepare to go back into the arena. They don’t take time off to rehab their injuries, they get back in the saddle. They are some of the most physically and mentally tough athletes we treat.”
School of Medicine physicians, Justin Sports Medicine, REMSA and Reno Rodeo Association medical volunteers provide round-the-clock, on-site medical care for the duration of the rodeo. For media interviews or to learn more, please contact Emily Wofford Cobb, communications manager, at 775-784-6006 or ecobb@medicine.nevada.edu.
As the state’s only public medical school, the University of Nevada School of Medicine has been meeting statewide healthcare, educational, and clinical needs since 1969. The School of Medicine encompasses 16 clinical medical education departments, including Family Medicine, Pediatrics, Obstetrics/Gynecology, Internal Medicine, Surgery, and Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, as well as ten nationally-recognized departments within basic science including microbiology and biomedical engineering. As the largest multi-specialty healthcare focus within the state, the School of Medicine employs more than 185 doctors who both teach and practice medicine throughout Nevada. The school’s statewide faculty physician practice group has a combined 25 different medical specialties with seven physician practice offices located in the Reno-Sparks area and five physician offices located in Las Vegas.
The University of Nevada School of Medicine utilizes a best-practice approach to medicine and is committed to addressing the health needs of Nevada now and in the future. For more information, please visit www.medicine.nevada.edu.
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