The track hospital is ready! Doctors and nurses have recreated real emergencies on the edge of the Gilles-Villeneuve circuit. They are ready to treat pilots who have suffered a serious accident as well as spectators suffering from heatstroke or alcohol intoxication.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
“We treat everyone,” says emergency physician François Scarborough, co-director of the track hospital. “For practical reasons, minor cases are sent to the public clinic, but if someone has a heart attack, we bring it here”, explains the one who has been working as a volunteer for the Canadian Grand Prix for fifteen years. years.
The emergency doctor is surrounded by a large team from the Sacré-Coeur hospital: nurses, respiratory therapists, anesthesiologists, orthopedists, neurosurgeons, plastic surgeons… They have set up a resuscitation room – an exact replica – in the Pirelli tower, where the race used to start, at the exit of the hairpin.
“The number of people we treat depends a lot on the temperature,” says Dr.r Scarborough as he puts on a fireproof suit to check his size.
There are plenty of people who have heart or lung problems. Their condition is usually stable, but with the temperature of the track rising to 40°C, sometimes 50°C when it’s hot, and when they hydrate with Molson, some decompress.
The Dr François Scarborough, emergency physician
The doctors and nurses at the temporary hospital all remember the death of a worker in 2013. The Formula 1 race had just ended, the spectators were leaving Île Notre-Dame, but the volunteer was hit by a tow truck. He was transported to the runway hospital, then transferred by helicopter to Sacré-Coeur where he was declared dead.
PHOTO BERNARD BRAULT, PRESS ARCHIVES
Intervention of the medical team, in 2013. A volunteer died in an accident after the race.
The Dr Pierre Fiset, co-director of the track hospital, also cites the cardiac arrest of Formula 1600 driver and RDS host Didier Schraenen in 2010. The latter collapsed to the ground in the pits. “He was transported by helicopter to Sacré-Coeur where he was expected by a cardiologist. He had an electrocardiogram, a coronagraphy, they put him on stents [endoprothèses] and hello visit! He fell at 11.15 a.m. and by 1.15 p.m. he was out of trouble, ”says the anesthetist passionate about Formula 1.
I think it was Stéphane Laporte who said that the best place to get sick during the Grand Prix weekend is here. There is no waiting to see a doctor.
The Dr Pierre Fiset, anesthesiologist
The fact remains that doctors rarely treat Formula 1 drivers during the weekend. “Where we are likely to have more work is with the small formulas, the secondary races [Coupe Nissan Sentra, Challenge Ferrari, F1600] “, specifies the Dr Fiset. After a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, enrollment is up this year, he notes. The drivers are also less experienced than in Formula 1 and their vehicles are less safe.
No racing without a helicopter
In addition to the volunteer staff mobilized at the track hospital and at the public clinic, five medical teams are stationed at the supply pits. Of the rescues are also scattered around the track. They are the only specialists trained to get a driver out of his Formula 1 car in the event of an accident.
“Do you want to see a formation of rescue ? Come in my car”, launches us all of go the Dr Fiset who must nevertheless answer a thousand and one questions from volunteers. The doctor drives along the Olympic Basin and stops in front of a small brown building. Inside, about thirty people (doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists) practice immobilizing a pilot, removing his helmet without moving his neck and getting him out of his cockpit using straps. The seat serves as a backboard.
In the afternoon of Thursday, officials from the International Automobile Federation (FIA) also checked and timed their maneuvers. Doctors and nurses also participated in two simulations during the day. They had time to practice loading a stretcher into a helicopter.
Photo provided by the CIUSSS du Nord-de-l’Île-de-Montréal
A team practices transporting a person for a helicopter transfer.
“It always takes a helicopter on the site, otherwise the races will be completely stopped, explains Michael Pilote, chief pilot at Airmedic. So we have a helicopter on the site and another in Saint-Hubert. As soon as a patient is going to board the helicopter, the one in Saint-Hubert will take off to take the place of the first so that there is never any uncovering. »
It is the FIA which requires the presence of a helicopter-ambulance, underlines the Dr Scarborough. “Transporting a serious case by road would be unimaginable. There are more than 100,000 people on Île Notre-Dame. It would be dangerous and it would lead to too long delays, ”explains the one who is nicknamed Scarby by his peers.
And, doctors, in closing, who will win the Grand Prix? The heart of the two doctors leans for the Monegasque Charles Leclerc.
“But I don’t care a bit about who is going to win, specifies the Dr Fiset. Me, that’s what I like, it’s to be with all this gang, this gang of really dedicated people. »