Injury procedure in your gym

[flpflp7]

What are the rules in your gym if a gymnast gets injured? At what point are the parents allowed to come out on the floor if at all? What is the reasoning behind the rule? Is there someone in your gym who is qualified enough to assess the seriousness of the injury?

 

[Jrsfitpromo]

What are the rules in your gym if a gymnast gets injured? At what point are the parents allowed to come out on the floor if at all? What is the reasoning behind the rule? Is there someone in your gym who is qualified enough to assess the seriousness of the injury?

When I was injured at my gym (tore all tendons and ligaments in my elbow..) first to my side was the gym owners daughter, who called for her mother across the gym. The owner then came and brought packs of ice and some ace bandages to wrap my arm around my chest to prevent further injury to my arm and to help with swelling. Luckily, my mother was in the parking lot, so they called her and she came in to see what was up...they explained to her that they heard some snapping noises and what trick I was doing, who was watching me/spotting me, and for precautionary reasons I should be taken to the doctors. They had my mother report the accident on paper, and then call the next day after I had all my xrays etc..

I come from a gym that has A LOT of injuries due to over exertion, so the parent was not allowed onto the floor until the coach had assessed the situation and deemed you 'unable to continue.' You were then escorted off the floor and your parents could help you. This also helped keep the 'panic factor' down with the parents, especially at meets.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

What are the rules in your gym if a gymnast gets injured? At what point are the parents allowed to come out on the floor if at all? What is the reasoning behind the rule? Is there someone in your gym who is qualified enough to assess the seriousness of the injury?

the reasoning is for the same reason that surgeon's do not practice surgery on family members. background emotion can compromise sound thinking and decision making.

 

[Bella's Mom]

I find this whole gymnastics mindset about parents not being allowed around their child very unique. I'm very glad that our gym doesn't practice this apparently very typical policy.

However, Bella is MY child. She doesn't belong to gymnastics and I don't care what gym we are in....if she's hurt, I WILL be at her side.

If it's a little rip, then yeah, I trust her coach to handle it and I wouldnt rush out to her. But if she takes a hard beam fall or hits her head on any apparatus, I will be out there as quickly as it takes my big fat butt to get off the bench.

That's my baby girl and her health and safety are always MY business.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

my credibility on this one will have to be trusted. Bog will confirm.

a couple of years ago a gymnast hit her head on the high bar doing a double flly away. this happened on a resi-pit as these bars were set up over such.

the mother saw what happened. she ran out in to the gym. past everyone.

as the gymnast was already being attended to, no one noticed that the mother was running out in to the gym and not of her right mind.

when she got to the resi, she stepped on to the resi as she was not aware of the footing.

she fell on her daughter. her left elbow fell on to the throat of her daughter as she lost her footing.

the mother fractured and displaced the adam's apple of her own daughter.

the gymnast received 2 stitches to the back of her head for the initial injury.

she received emergency surgery that evening for the fractured adam's apple which nearly caused her to suffocate when she was lying on the floor. the paramedics were not able to intubate her at the scene due to the angle displacement of the fracture. they had to perform a tracheotomy.

i could tell you many more stories just like this. things similar have happened at meets. maybe geoff knows of the father that released the turn buckle on high bar when experienced personnel were not able to get his son down "fast enough" when his grip locked up and found him precariously wrapped around the bar. this boy nearly had his hand amputated because of this actions of his father who was "just trying to help".

parents need to stay at bay and stay calm if they are present when their child becomes injured. you wait until the the situation is under control and the injury assessed and what will come next.

 

[Sunobo]

I don't know the procedure at our gym since parents aren't allowed to stay and watch but I think parents should stay off the floor unless the coach asks them to come out.

I trust our coaches to know how to handle injuries and the majority of injuries in our gym tend to be just bumps and bruises. A calm coach, a little ice and some time on the sidelines is all they usually need. Parents anxiety level over the injury usually just increases the gymnasts anxiety level especially in younger kids.

I was a EMT on an ambulance for many many years and the "helpful" bystander and family members were in the way and hendering our progress more than helping. On more than one occasion I would have gotten a child calmed down until an anxious family member stepped in and then the child anxiety level woulld skyrocket.

Let the coaches do their job and they will let us parents know if they need us if our childern get injuried.

 

[10.0]

I totally agree with Dunno. I am medically trained and I have seen this sort of thing happen often. People don't realize that moving someone with a spinal fracture can be the difference between them being okay or them being paralyzed, that is why people pull people out of cars that have been in an accident all the time thinking it might explode (which is actually highly unlikely)

Under stress the first thing a parent is going to want to do is grab their child, which is often the worst thing you could do. You need to have your child attend a gym that you can trust should something happen and allow them to sort the situation out and then come to you, don't go running out in the gym.

If your gym is USAG the coaches have to take a safety course that explains to coaches what to do, and a lot of gyms require some of the staff at least to be CPR trained.

I think the best plan would be for the most trained coaching staff to go to the child, if they are teaching class have another coach take their children and take them to a different part of the gym so they aren't upset. Have the coaches assess and stabilize the child while having one staff member call 911 if needed and once you have an idea of what is going on (i.e. kid hit head but is breathing and awake, complaining of neck pain, 911 has been called) have a staff member go out to the waiting area and keep the parent informed, if the parent is absent call them and calmly explain the situation, what hospital she is going to and tell them to proceed carefully to the hospital. That plan is more laid out for a situation that seems more serious not for a bumped knee.

 

[nettyinpa]

At dd's old gym if she fell on beam or landed wrong on floor, it was up to the coaches to help her. I'm not trained to do so. However, there was one occasion where she was working on her level 4 routine, on bars right in front of me. The coach that was working with her (I think she was doing mill circles) decided to leave her side to help another girl with her pull over on another set of bars 10 feet away. Well, dd went down, landed on her neck. I saw it from upstairs. I would've jumped over the wall if I could've. I was down those stairs in 5 seconds and at her side. She was scared, I didn't touch her, just calmed her down. I almost attacked the coach for leaving her without a spot. I got out of their way when the program director came out with ice. She asked if anyone saw what happened. Hellooooooo!!! Don't you think the coach would be the one to answer that??? No, I did, as well as another dozen parents, standing there in disbelief that there wasn't a coach with her. You should've heard the huge gasp and then silence. 1 coach to 8 girls at the time. Not a safe thing. So, yeah, if I think my dd is in trouble because of a neglectful coach, I'll be on that floor.

 

[gymcoach34]

I find this whole gymnastics mindset about parents not being allowed around their child very unique. I'm very glad that our gym doesn't practice this apparently very typical policy.

However, Bella is MY child. She doesn't belong to gymnastics and I don't care what gym we are in....if she's hurt, I WILL be at her side.

If it's a little rip, then yeah, I trust her coach to handle it and I wouldnt rush out to her. But if she takes a hard beam fall or hits her head on any apparatus, I will be out there as quickly as it takes my big fat butt to get off the bench.

That's my baby girl and her health and safety are always MY business.

While I understand the emotion behind your statement- one of the most important thing we have to do as coches is to assess the injury, and if mom or dad is running across the floor to the child's side as we try to assess-the child will most definitely me MORE afraid or emotional-making our job much more difficult.

When your child is on the gym floor they are also OUR business. Can you run to them if they trip at school? We are trained to respond to injuries & have a system in place (who goes to the child, what they do to make sure the injury is dealt with in the correct manner, then direct a certain person to call EMT & parent if necessary). I would hope the staff would be dealing with the injured child & the other children, not dealing with adults.

If you have any other questions see Dunno's post, or I can tell you about the Mom that tripped running into the gym, breaking her ankle, thus sending her daughter (who got a little bruise splitting the beam) into HYSTERICS, which scared the entire team and parent viewing area. (Mom had to leave in an ambulance.)

 

[twoofthem]

I don’t know our gym policy but I do trust every coach on that floor with my child and I know with out a doubt that they have my girls best interest in mind. I also coach a little at our gym so I am on the floor a lot of the time my girls are. It would take a lot to fight that impulse to run to my child but if my child falls and gets hurt it isn't about me and honestly, at the moment, it isn't about my child emotional needs either. We are talking about meeting her physical needs first and I understand this is a crazy dangerous sport that I have made a choice to allow my girls to participate in. In that choice, I understand that the risks they are taking can be high but I also understand that the people who surround her are competent and capable.

We do have a trained EMT who is the vault coach.

 

[Bella's Mom]

Dunno, I trust your reputation on your own without having to invoke Bog. LOL I've read enough of your posts to have nothing but respect for you.

I trust the coaches but I would want to be out there comforting my girl. I wouldn't attempt to treat her or "help" but rather to comfort her. I understand most of you disagree with me and that's fine. I respect everyone's opinion and experiences.

 

[gym law mom]

As someone with a medical background I do understand the importance of keeping people away and keeping a calm enviornment when there is an injury. My problem is there are coaches at our gym that I don't trust. Gymmie was doing yerchenkos and hit her head on the vault table(coach was 5-6' away) and basically flopped into the pit. She somehow managed to climb out herself and tell the coach who was standing there in a mild panic that her neck hurt. Coach sat her down and told her to take it easy. Checked on her a few minutes later and gymmie was complaining of "stinging" down her back. Sent a girl to get her an ice pack. Didn't help and gymmie started crying(which is way out of character for her). Coach then sent someone to get the owner who calmed her down and called us----did we want them to call 911 or just come get her???? This was at least 15 minutes after she had gotten hurt.

We got her and took her to the ER----diagnosis was mild concussion and neck strain. This was just horrible management of an injury by a coach because she in her infinite medical wisdom(none except USAG safety cert) didn't think it was "serious."

 

[10.0]

I forgot to add, I do think it would be wise to have at least one person who if more highly qualified medically at the gym. Even getting a first responder course would be nice, it only takes a couple of months and makes people more than qualified to know what to do in case of a spinal injury. It saddens me that people have experienced coaches that let neck injuries go so lightly. Especially in our sue happy world if nothing else you would think gyms would error on the side of caution.

 

[cathiann]

OMG, Dunno! How scary is that? As far as injuries at the gym--I don't know that our gym has a policy--I do know when they called me when my oldest landed on her head during a front tumbling pass, they let me go out on the floor to see her. Typically parents are not allowed out on the floor--I think the main reason being they don't know to pay attention to every other gymnast flipping and tumbling around them. Plus, the gym doesn't have insurance on THEM, so if they get injured (by some gymnast flipping into them perhaps), the gym might be in trouble.

 

[gymcoach26]

Just to add another story.. We had a mom run into the gym right across our inground tramploline, trip and break her ankle all while she was rushing in to see her daughter who was crying OVER A RIP. The mom obviously wasn't watching practice or she would have seen that there was no reason to be alarmed, but when she looked up and saw just the sight of her daughter crying, she freaked out. I'm not saying that parents shouldn't be allowed to come to their kids side, but please wait until a coach goes out to get you.

 

[CoachGoofy]

We're all at least first aid trained at our gym. Because of the setup and something with the insurance (I've not read it, this is just in the official injury policy), parents may NOT come onto the floor unless asked. The injury plan involves:
-Coach who was with the athlete when s/he fell does the basic evaluation
-Another coach takes the rest of the group
-An older trustworthy athlete may be called to get ice or other first aid supplies
-If an ambulance is needed, a specific other adult will call 911 (and the parents if applicable), so the coach who is calming & evaluating the athlete can stay there.

On our T&T equipment especially it's very important to give an injured or potentially injured gymnast some space. If there were a spinal injury on the competitive trampolines, all it takes is someone rushing to kneel next to the hurt athlete to shift something important into the spinal cord.

 

[flpflp7]

Thanks

Thank you all for your replies. For the most part it's right along my thinking. Although I hate stories of people being injured at the gym it happens no matter how hard we try to prevent it & I appreciate the examples you all have provided.