NORMAL, Ill. (WMBD) – On Tuesday, Illinois State and OSF partnered together to further develop training in crisis situations with local athletic trainers from Blo-No area high schools and college students.
To review emergency protocols, give everybody a chance to be prepared when it comes to emergency situations in athletics: heat emergencies, cardiac emergencies, airway emergencies, fractures and splinting, spine boarding. We kind of went through the whole gamut.
Andrew Brubaker, Head Illinois State Football Athletic Trainer
“We’ve got people just starting their training to athletic trainers and physicians with decades of experience,” said Dr. Karan Rai, a OSF sports physician. “Seeing how those perspectives come together can also really help us when we’re in different settings.”
Brubaker added, “I think it’s just the confidence of being able to rip out the skills that everybody’s always talking about reps taking more reps, doing more routes, doing more catches, and that’s just what it takes.”
Emergency training can be called upon at any time; even during the dead of summer, long before the football season kicks off.
We did have a young man that was here for a camp that we unfortunately did have to perform CPR on. We were lucky that we were able to revive him. Luckily, he is alive and well today.
Andrew Brubaker
Colleen Daniels has been an athletic trainer for the past 12 years. She changed her academic trajectory in college after her own battle with an affliction.
“I had an injury in high school that took a few years to figure out what was wrong,” Daniels said. “Impingement of my hips and I had to have surgery on both of them. Basically, once we found out what it was, the gears started turning and I wanted to figure out, ‘How can I help prevent this from happening to other people?’”
For those considering a career in athletic training, these men and women say it’s all about the kids.
Brubaker said, “Tell them you got to love athletics first and you got to love taking care of people. They’re like your kids. And so you want to be just as prepared as if they were your own children to take care of them no matter what happened to them.”
You have a kid who has a season-ending injury and being able to help them recover from that, do their rehab and get them back into the sport that they love. I call that my ‘Proud Mom’ moment when I get to see them on the field for the first time again
Colleen Daniels
