Ambulance Driver

Our service provides the EMS coverage for the Minnesota Twins. Major League Baseball requires paramedics and an ambulance to be on site an hour before the game and remain until both teams release us from service after the contest. As I remember, this requirement came on the heels of the death of umpire John McSherry, working behind the plate, on Opening Day 1996.

Generally speaking, we are there to provide service, if needed, for the players, umpires and other on-field personnel. Service for fans is provided by First-Aid teams scattered around the stadium. We also assign one paramedic to standby in the First Aid room to  assist those teams as well.

The Twins have a  new ballpark, Target Field, and I can’t add anything to the superlatives that have all ready been written about this place – except to say that it is the nicest sports venue I’ve ever been in.

The move from the Metro Dome to the new facility has involved an awful lot of planning. But, as Robert Burns famously said,  “The best laid plans o’ mice an’ men gang afta-gley.”

The fans have to learn the best route to the ballpark, and where to park. The ballplayers have to learn “the hop” on infield grounders and the carom off the wall. Manager Ron Gardenhire has to figure out where to stand in the dugout. The concessionaires have a lot to think about, as do the ticket-takers. Police, security and the general operation people have to shoe-horn the old procedures into the new operational reality. In other words, a lot of people are running around and scratching their heads.

Most agree that it will take the entire season to get every thing figured out.

How does the new facility effect the Paramedics? Well, there are not a lot of jobs that put a guy in a situation where some body’s life could be on the line (in a worse-case scenario) and you are called to perform in front of 40,000 people, network cameras and You Tube.

To put it mildly, we have a lot of issues to think through.

I worked the first two exhibition games where the Twins played the Cardinals. We have been posted in the camera well adjacent to the Twins’ dugout. The first thing we noticed was that, once we entered the hallway leading to the camera well from the Clubhouse, the door locked behind us. This isn’t good – our equipment is on the other side. That problem was solved by getting us a key fob that opened every secure door in the stadium.This is good for the medics, but gives Twins security something else to think about.

This camera well was built for, well, those who produce video and those who are credentialed photographers. The hallway is also used by the grounds crew, a group of about 10 guys who run out about every 3 innings to tend to the field. Sports reporters are also in and out of there, as they also are trying to figure out the best way to cover the game.

Consequently, I frequently found myself moving around, saying “excuse me,” a lot and trying to keep my ugly mug off the big screen in center field (I failed in this regard). In other words, we are the least important guys in that area…until…

Something Bad Happens.

It is then that the situation changes and all focus is on the victim and the people who come to their aid.

That’s when my obsequiousness ends and command of the situation passes to me and my partner. It is the expectation that we will perform tasks and give orders and that all will run smoothly. Command and control of emergency medical scenes is what I do for a living. I’ll be the first to tell you that “we ain’t there yet” if an emergency would happen on the field.

But we are getting close. We have had nothing but the best relations with the Minnesota Twins. This is a first class operation that is doing its utmost to make sure that things go well in the case of a medical emergency.

Things will get ironed out. Its just going to take a little while.

Tomorrow and Saturday the Twins come to town to host Albert Pujols and the St Louis Cardinals in the last two exhibition games of spring training.

They will also christen the newest ball park in Major League Baseball, Target Field.

I’m working both these games as a medic. While I missed our tours of the facility, Those who went told me it’s a terrific stadium.

There are undoubtedly going to be some operational “bugs”  to be worked out over the course of the season Our concern will be the logistics of how the field medics interact with the Twins medical team. Preliminary plans have been made, but things always seem to change as we all put our heads together and attempt to determine the best way to perform our various duties.

There will be some initial confusion but it all will work itself out – but I do hear that I had better bring the raincoat Friday night.

Wonder when the Twins last had a rain-out for a home game?

For the first time, we will also have a medic with the First Aid team that responds to calls in the stands. This will probably be less of a hassle due to the fact that this same team of volunteers are a carry-over from the MetroDome and have been busy practicing patient extrication from the stands for several weeks now. Historically, they have really done a nice job.

Additionally, I will also be working the TimberWolves game Saturday night and I would be remiss if I did not say that the Wolves and Target Center handle their public safety responsibilities better than any other organization I have been associated with.