Big Time Wrestling

The North County wrestling tournament that leads to the State Finals has been held at our local high school for the past few years. I was working overtime in that district and the captain suggested we go check it out. Some kids from his hometown were wrestling there too. It is a huge event with six matches going simultaneously in the big gym and another four to six in the smaller gym. Each match is only six minutes long and then another two wrestlers step up. The place is a zoo with athletes, coaches, parents, runners, officials, etc. Just watching these kids and taking in the whole scene made me realize that high school wrestling really is a subculture unto itself. On a side note, I was surprised at how many of the wrestlers had tattoos, meaning they had to have had parental permission since they were under 18. Just interesting.

We were watching the matches in the big gym and had found a place to stand and watch that was somewhat out of everyone's way, though barely. After witnessing these kids go at it with everything they had for a little while I commented to the firefighter that we should have brought our gear in with us, or at least some extra gloves. He smiled and said, "We should have just brought the morphine".

Sure enough, within about ten minutes, the radio piped up with "Engine 47 respond to the high school for an EMS". We looked around and didn't see anything going on around us. We got the update that it was in the small gym and that it was for a dislocated elbow.


We headed out to the rig to get our gear. As we worked our way down the crowded hall the firefighter said, "Told you we should have brought the morphine". The next thing I heard from behind me was what I can only assume was some wrestler's mother exclaiming, "Morphine?!".

In the small gym it was easy to locate our patient since he was on the only mat without an active match going on. His elbow was obviously dislocated and he stated his pain level was at an 8 out of 10 but he still refused pain medication. Gotta hand it to the male high school athlete, nothing was going to make this guy lose face anymore than his injury already had. He could tough it out. I'm sure in the hospital when it came time to pop his limb back into place, though, he would change his mind about those pain meds. We splinted his arm, put an ice pack on it, and turned him over to the ambulance crew.

We returned to the big gym and watched for awhile longer before leaving to go get fuel and dinner. At the rig I found that the ambulance crew had been nice enough to return our splint to us, which was fortuitous. A little while after dinner we got toned out again for "EMS at the high school, dislocated elbow". This time it was in the big gym. Same scenario as last time: obviously dislocated elbow, refusal of pain meds, splint and an ice pack.

The event was winding down and the final match was taking place so we stuck around to watch it. In the morning we found our splint in our mailbox. The ambulance crew had once again returned the splint to us, saving us a trip out to the hospital to retrieve it. Those ambulance guys are OK.