The inspiring stories of these Games continue! I just watched (live) our Canadian skater, Joannie Rochette, perform her short program. Her mother passed away suddenly a few days ago, upon arriving at the Vancouver Airport. This young athlete from Quebec just skated the program of her life, a personal best, and the fans brought the house down with support for her. Her tears at the end were heart wrenching, as she appreciated the fans’ deafening support. It was one of the most touching Olympic moments to date.

There have been many touching moments here…. as the Games continue in full force. One of the most exciting and rewarding moments for members of the medical team at the Polyclinic occurred last week, on one of our busiest days of athletic trauma. One of the Nordic skiers collapsed after her event. In her warm up, just prior to racing, she had crashed and fallen 15 feet down a ditch into a tree! She proceeded to race and win a medal! She collapsed as she crossed the finish line (all the Nordic skiers do this, as they completely kill themselves each race – it’s incredible to see!) but she was unable to get up. It turns out she raced with 5 broken ribs and a hemothorax (blood in the lung cavity causing a collapsed lung) and still won a medal!! As she desperately wanted to attend the medal ceremony, our team stablized her and an ambulance and paramedics accompanied her back to the ceremony, a tube draining from her chest cavity and attached to a suction device hidden beneath her shirt. The paramedics helped her onto the podium, she accepted her medal, then returned to our clinic and was transferred to the major trauma hospital in Vancouver for monitoring! An unbelievable story!! Imagine the pain of racing a totally aerobic event with 5 broken ribs and a diminished lung capacity!

The Americans, Germans and the Norwegians continue to dominate these Games, both countries turning in so many amazing medal performances. Whistler is FULL of Norwegians (see my photos) including many of the sponsors of their Olympic teams. These VIP’s have been putting on big parties for their winning athletes, fans and support teams. Because every day the Norwegians win several medals (today a silver and bronze in mens Giant Slalom and a silver in womens skier cross – a local Whistler girl won the gold!) these parties are happening regularly. The King of Norway is here and attending the parties, making them the BIG events in Whistler! A great site for viewing unbiased coverage and current events schedules and results is
www.vancouver2010.com

Life at the Polyclinic continues to be incredibly busy! My 8 hour shifts fly by and I see patients non-stop. Luckily they are not all athletes – we also care for the Olympic team coaches and officials, volunteers and the police and security force. Many of the volunteers are coming in with injuries from skiing on their days off! The athletes have been coming in as well – usually we see most of them in the afternoons following their races or training. From 3-8pm we are usually swamped with medical visits and mri requests from team doctors. (Most of the larger teams have their own team doctors traveling with them, and many also have their own mini medical clinics within the Athlete’s village. For example, Canada and the US both have small medical clinics within their areas in the village, staffed by their own team doctors. The doctors will send their athletes into the large Polyclinic for any diagnostic imaging, lab work or other issues that require more equipment than they keep at their smaller clinics. (I worked with the Canadian team at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney as part of the team covering our own medical clinic within the village, so I know that these team clinics are also very busy during the Games.)
The dentist and the eye doctor are booked out for the remainder of the Games. Our physiotherapists, chiropractors, accupuncturist and massage therapists have been extremely busy as well, as many of the smaller teams don’t travel with their own therapists (like the US and Canada do.) The Polyclinic itself is seeing over 200 visits a day (7am-11pm), including a few overnight patients (who remain in the trauma unit for monitoring.) We have seen acute coronary syndromes (preceding heart attacks) in visiting team coaches/officials, and many other emergent conditions. On the days that the dangerous events race or train, we remain on a level 1 state of readiness (5mins to prepare for incoming trauma) with a full trauma team (trauma surgeon, orthopedic surgeon, radiologist, all ICU nurses and xray/mri techs) on site. Often bobsleigh will train until 11:30 at night, so we all have to be ready and remain on level 1 alert until that training is finished. Then, overnight, we drop to a level 3 state of readiness -with all trauma team is within 5-15 minutes. Our busiest days are certainly those on which the sliding center hosts events and the alpine skiing races go (espcially during the downhill and super G races last week.)

The Polyclinic also promotes public health and tracks the local communicable diseases (such as the now diminishing problem with a gastroenteritis going around the workers living outside the athletes village – not involving the teams themselves, luckily. We promote hand washing and gives out condoms – the clinic has already given out over 37,000 condoms in the 12 days of the Games!!

One of the best parts of working in the Games is access to view all the sports competing each day on live HD tv! There are HD TV’s everywhere around the athlete’s village and most of Whistler. (Usually I am too busy while at the Polyclinic to sit down and watch an event, but it’s great to catch the latest results of Nordic qualifying heats or alpine races as I run by the tv’s, en route from patient to patient to xray to physiotherapy and back!)

Tomorrow is my last shift in the clinic. It’s been a lot of fun and I feel privileged to have worked with such a great team! The athletes and visiting teams have made the most of our wonderful facilities and are all so thrilled to have access to such wonderful medical care and diagnostic imaging (xray, ultrasound, mri and ct scanners all compliments of GE, donated specially for the Games.)

See my photos under the tab Olympic Gallery!