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For the team of BWH physicians and nurses that attends every Patriots home game and concert at Gillette Stadium, the action is off the field. They are behind the scenes, staffing four clinics where the nearly 70,000 fans can receive medical treatment if necessary.
“The advantage of having a Brigham doctor and nurse in each of the stadium’s clinics is that we already know each other,” said Tobias Barker, MD, of BWH Emergency Medicine, and medical director for Gillette Stadium. “We have confidence in each other and easily work together as a team.”
In September, that team work and confidence was put to the test when a fan at a Jimmy Buffett concert suffered a heart attack while leaving the stadium. The stadium medical team sprang into action to resuscitate the patient and get a helicopter onto the practice field to take the man to BWH, where he received tertiary cardiac care. Thanks to the team’s response, the patient survived.
“It’s a remarkably advanced and integrated system of medical response,” said Richard Zane, MD, vice chair of Emergency Medicine at BWH. “Gillette Stadium unequivocally has the best medical care of any stadium in the U.S.”
The system is based on a seamless integration of BWH Emergency Medicine, Foxboro Fire and EMS, Foxboro Police and the Fallon Ambulance service. Each clinic is staffed by an emergency physician, emergency nurse, an EMT from the Foxboro Fire Department and paramedics from Fallon. The team is equipped to treat patrons with myriad emergent and urgent medical conditions ranging from minor trauma, intoxication, shortness of breath and chest pain, to severe allergic reactions, acute coronary syndromes, major trauma and head injury, among other injuries.
“We can start IVs, administer medications, including intravenous medications and suture, all of which is provided by the stadium free of charge for the patrons,” said Heidi Crim, RN, nurse manager of BWH Emergency Nursing and frequent nurse at Gillette stadium. “The people we see are very grateful.”
That’s because getting treatment at the stadium often saves them from leaving the football game or concert and occasionally, as in the case described, saves their lives. The medical team treats anywhere from 50 to 90 people during a football game, and this summer the team treated more than 400 during an all-day country music festival.