DONA PAULA: Manipal Hospitals-Goa, in association with Goa Football Association (GFA) and Goa Football Development Council (GFDC), launched a ‘Sports Medicine Program’ here on Sunday.
With ‘Basic Life Support’ training programme as the key area of focus for the experts at Manipal Hospitals and the need of the hour for the football fraternity represented by GFA and GFDC; a practical session provided the gathering crucial knowledge and the procedure to execute the life-saving processes on the field of play.
The experts highlighted the successful implementation of on-field emergency care to Denmark star Christian Eriksen, initially by his team-mate, after the play-maker had collapsed during a Euro 2020 match earlier this summer.
This is the kind of attention that Goa needs from its footballers/coaches as they are the closest to any serious injury concern on the ground before doctors/paramedics/cardiac-care ambulance reaches the spot. And the ‘golden hour’ to work your way to successful treatment is only three minutes to a maximum! Hence, the experts primarily urged players to take deep interest in acquiring ‘Basic Life Support’ skills so that they themselves understand and apply the knowledge to save precious lives of their team-mates with accurate Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), artificial ventilation following the applicable steps in single rescue or double rescue scenario, before the healthcare experts arrive on the scene.
Various step-by-step demonstration and audiovisual presentations showed the gathering, ways of providing the treatment in the ‘first three minutes’.
Manipal Hospitals Goa’s Senior consultant (Orthopedic) and Sports Medicine expert, Dr Dipchand Bhandare stressed that players can play with confidence when they know that there is (life) support even if something happens. HOD (Oncology), Dr Shekhar Salkar hoped that this ‘Basic Life Support’ initiative will herald a new beginning in Goan football.
GFA president Churchill Alemao emphasised that all divisional clubs under the state governing body for football, will be encouraged to benefit from this programme. GFDC chairman Brahmanand Shankhwalkar described it as a ‘very essential initiative’.
The training programme, which will be conducted on alternate weeks; was attended by players, coaches, officials, doctors among others.
