“Does somebody have to die before they will upgrade and properly manage the medical surveillance facility at Greyville Racecourse?” asks a jockey’s distraught mother after eye-witness accounts of a bizarre comedy of errors and allegations of a lack of professionalism on the part of medical staff – which included the ambulance’s inability to gain quick access to an injured rider – following a horror accident at the track on Friday evening.
No room for ambulance u-turn
Talk of a possible boycott by jockeys of KZN racemeetings has emerged following a disgraceful tale of ineptitude and lack of care that has come to light in the wake of the accident on Friday evening that saw jockey Jarred Samuel suffer a bad fall after appearing to clip heels in the closing stages of the fourth race.
The facts disclosed to the Sporting Post include details that the telephone number of St Augustine’s Hospital had to be googled by a member of the public and that the on-course doctor had no flashlight to check the stricken jockey’s pupils – using bystanders mobile phone torches instead.
“The EMS staff are not adequately trained and do not have the equipment to deal with life threatening injuries such as that witnessed by us at Greyville on Friday evening. The injured jockey was gurgling and choking in his own blood and his eyes were rolling in his head, yet the paramedics wanted to sedate him. They seemed panic stricken and clueless,” said an angry family member of a jockey who was riding on the evening.
St John Ambulance man a public first-aid facility under the main stand and their staff were not involved in the incident. This was confirmed by an official from their Durban office, who said that they were not involved directly in jockey emergencies, which was the responsibility of EMS.
“We have had a longstanding association with horseracing, but have two volunteers manning a facility. We would obviously assist where we could, but my staff have confirmed that they were not called to the scene of the accident,” he said.
Samuel’s silks and safety vest were removed by a jockey’s wife and he was placed on his side by her in the process of stabilisation.
“The on-course doctor arrived without his medical bag and said that he didn’t think to bring it,” she said.
She added that the polytrack was ‘bloody hard’ too.
“The configuration of the track means the ambulance has to go all the way around the track again as it cannot make a u-turn,” said another bystander.
A trained medical person who witnessed the event, but wishes to remain anonymous for professional reasons, said that what should have taken ten minutes, took roughly three times as long.
Lucky to be alive – Jarred Samuel
“The doctor should have intubated him up front – that is the basic process. Yet he kept saying it was ‘touch and go’. The first aid-kit had to be used to prop Jarred’s head up and the cervical collar was not available immediately. I don’t want to knock fellow medical personnel unnecessarily, but really it was a poor show from start to finish – the doctor should have arrived with his torch and stethoscope as basic procedure.”
It has also emerged that the Greyville Ambulance is not adequately equipped with life support apparatus to deal with an injury such as that suffered by Samuel and that it was held up in traffic en route to the hospital as it had no siren.
That is a shocking indictment of poor planning and a lack of care on the part of management overseeing one of the world’s most dangerous sports.
In a further potentially life threatening time-wasting administrative bungle, the stock of an authorisation form meant to accompany the patient was also depleted after start handler Mike Shaw had been kicked in the chest a week earlier – and the last form had been used for his case and not replenished.
“The whole show is just not good enough and smacks of incompetence and amateurism. Gold Circle management are aware of it from previous incidents. Do they care? Certainly not on what we saw on Friday evening,” said a jockey’s mother, who confirmed that there was no action on the part of the racing operator when the issues had been raised previously.
The good news to emerge from sources close to the Samuel family is that Jarred’s condition has stabilised after spending much of the weekend in an induced coma and he has no broken bones.
