Poly Clinic, MedFest offer care to athletes at Special Olympics World Games
UCLA medical staff provided pre-participation evaluations and urgent care for Special Olympics athletes in clinics hosted by UCLA Health at the Ashe Center.
(Miriam Bribiesca/Daily Bruin senior staff)
By Pei (Bonnie) Ni
Aug. 3, 2015 8:22 a.m.
About five physicians and nurses hurriedly fetched bandages and medicines, seemingly incognizant of the frenzy of cheers erupting outside in celebration of the Special Olympics World Games. Physicians exchanged concise directions at the UCLA Arthur Ashe Student Health and Wellness Center, where they treated an athlete for a broken collarbone following a cycling accident.
Within 30 minutes, they finished treating the athlete, who would later return for follow-up appointments. The treatment is only one example of the care provided at the UCLA Health Poly Clinic for the Special Olympics World Games.
UCLA Health physicians, nurses and staff ran the Poly Clinic, the only place on campus that offered medical treatment to athletes and delegates.
The Poly Clinic provided urgent medical care to athletes and delegates. Examples of the care the clinic provides are treatment for acute symptoms and injuries, X-ray exams, lab work such as blood tests and intravenous hydration, for which doctors inject fluids into the veins to remedy dehydration, said Mark Mayes, UCLA Health co-chair of the World Games and executive director of emergency, trauma services and performance excellence.
Mayes said UCLA Health funds and supplies the clinic’s resources, including staff, transportation and medical equipment, upon the request of the Special Olympics. UCLA Health spent about six months in preparation for the clinic’s opening.
The medical crew consists of physicians and nurses from the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica and UCLA Emergency Medicine Residency, Mayes said. About 15 physicians and nurses treat about 30 patients per day, he added.
“(The clinic) is our commitment to the community and to the world,” Mayes said. “We provide health care to athletes who may not be able to access it (in their own countries).”
Medical students from David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA also volunteered to assist physicians and input the treatment information of athletes into the medical information database of the Special Olympics, said Dr. Lynne McCullough, medical director of the emergency department at Ronald Reagan.
Jennifer Chyu, a graduate student in the David Geffen School of Medicine, said she volunteered to assist at the clinic because she thinks it was a good opportunity to meet the Special Olympics athletes and learn how to treat patients.
Chyu said she was moved by one soccer athlete’s enthusiasm to go back to play in the games after he came to the clinic for a sprained thumb.
“It was very exciting to be able to tell him to go and enjoy competing in the Games” Chyu said.
UCLA Health also conducted MedFest, a clinic that provided pre-participation evaluations for athletes before the games, said Dr. Daniel Vigil, a sports and family medicine physician at Ronald Reagan who served as the director of the MedFest site at UCLA. MedFest operated from July 24 to 25 at Covel Commons.
Vigil said all athletes were required to have medical checkups and be cleared to participate by physicians in their own countries prior to arriving in Los Angeles. On some occasions, their medical status was unclear, either because of incomplete documentation, or on rarer occasions, incomplete evaluations due to limited resources in developing countries, he added.
“Special Olympics MedFest acts as the safety net that ensures the athletes are healthy and fit to compete,” Vigil said.
McCullough said she enjoyed providing care for the athletes at the Poly Clinic which she said helped to keep the athletes from having to go to the Ronald Reagan Emergency Department for minor ailments.
One of the female soccer athletes living on the Hill experienced an elevated temperature, vomiting and nausea. McCullough drove to her room to bring her to the Poly Clinic for treatment. The athlete returned the following day for different medical problems, but she recovered both times after being treated at the clinic.
Kerry Gold, the nurse who treated the athlete, said patients and their families were always thankful for their help.
“(The athletes) were trading pins with us (at the end of their treatments) and giving us hugs and high-fives,” Gold said.
