One of the u12s lads I coach had a knee disclocation yesterday. The referee did some common-sense things that, in retrospect, I'm not sure I'd have thought of in the heat of the moment. I figured I'd share them here to see if anyone can add further ideas or make use of the info, should they be in a similar situation.
The incident happened from a scrum collapse, almost certainly due to the very slippery conditions and relative inexperience of u12B level front five. As soon as the injury became apparent (you only had to look!!) the referee sent a runner to get the paramedics and made sure that the player didn't move. By this time both the lad's father and I had got to the player to just try to re-assure him and again keep him still. That left the referee to order both teams from the pitch back to their gazebos. He told them to keep away and he would come and find them when we were ok to restart.
The paramedics arrived in only a couple of minutes (thankfully the real mckoy, complete with gas and air), the referee took me to one side to check whether we wanted to continue. He also said that once the pitch was clear he would give us a few minutes to warm up and get ready to play again. Before we restarted he was re-assuring to both teams, and went through the scrum basics again (tight bind, CBSY9 etc).
In summary, the referee did the first aid bit quickly with no panic but as soon as that was done he was v thoughtful to keeping 11 yr old lads away from a nasty injury that would have caused them potentially lasting distress (I'm not going to forget it for a while, that's for sure). He then made sure everyone was comfortable to restart when the time was right.
Anyway, kudos to him and I hope the club pass on the email I sent. The lad is back at home after a general anaesthetic was needed to sort him out. Hopefully he'll be up and running before too long.
The incident happened from a scrum collapse, almost certainly due to the very slippery conditions and relative inexperience of u12B level front five. As soon as the injury became apparent (you only had to look!!) the referee sent a runner to get the paramedics and made sure that the player didn't move. By this time both the lad's father and I had got to the player to just try to re-assure him and again keep him still. That left the referee to order both teams from the pitch back to their gazebos. He told them to keep away and he would come and find them when we were ok to restart.
The paramedics arrived in only a couple of minutes (thankfully the real mckoy, complete with gas and air), the referee took me to one side to check whether we wanted to continue. He also said that once the pitch was clear he would give us a few minutes to warm up and get ready to play again. Before we restarted he was re-assuring to both teams, and went through the scrum basics again (tight bind, CBSY9 etc).
In summary, the referee did the first aid bit quickly with no panic but as soon as that was done he was v thoughtful to keeping 11 yr old lads away from a nasty injury that would have caused them potentially lasting distress (I'm not going to forget it for a while, that's for sure). He then made sure everyone was comfortable to restart when the time was right.
Anyway, kudos to him and I hope the club pass on the email I sent. The lad is back at home after a general anaesthetic was needed to sort him out. Hopefully he'll be up and running before too long.