The Capital District Minor Football Association (CDMFA) has lodged a complaint with the City of Edmonton after an ambulance was stopped from crossing a field to help an injured player.
Parkland Predator linebacker Troy Potter took a hard hit about midway through the third quarter of Saturday’s game at Clarke Field, says coach Brad Dayman.
Potter stayed down on one knee after he was hit, and Dayman ran out to him.
“When I got about halfway to him, he tried to stand up and collapsed back down,” he said. “When I did get to him, he mentioned that he had pain in his neck.”
Dayman, who has been trained to take neck injuries seriously, laid Pottery down carefully and called an ambulance — but when it arrived 10 minutes later, a field attendant stopped the driver from crossing the field to where Potter lay.
“He told them that they couldn’t drive out onto the field,” Dayman said.
The reason: the city only allows modified vehicles to drive on any of its fields with artificial turf.
“The city’s practice is that vehicles should not drive onto the artificial turf, because it’s not a driveable surface,” Dale Shekooley with the city said on Monday. “The advice that we have from EMS is that they are fully equipped to access patients in all kinds of conditions.”
The ambulance driver was forced to back off the field entirely before the EMTs were allowed to unload a backboard and stretcher, which they ran out to Potter.
“By the time they actually got to Troy, I’d say they’d been at the field for four or five minutes,” Dayman said.
Frustrated by the delay in an already-stressful situation, Dayman asked the league to back him in asking the city to review its policy, which he wasn’t aware of.
“I’ve been around football specifically for about 10 or 12 years now, and I’ve never had an issue with an ambulance trying to get on the field,” Dayman said. “I’ve never seen one stopped before.”
The league made its formal complaint on Monday evening; Dayman said he was told the city is now reviewing its policy.
Potter was checked out at hospital and released with a clean bill of health.
