Deadspin piece on Speight injury
- Thread starter New Pal Boiler
- Start date
“Wilton gets hit and didn’t move for a little while, which is a parent’s worst nightmare,” Bobby Speight said. “The police took us down but were unable to open the door. Someone who appeared to be a member of the food staff realized what was going on and let us in. When that door opened, even in high school I had never been in a visiting locker room that bad. It was dark, dingy, dirty.”
Michigan and Michigan State have full X-ray capabilities at their stadiums, and they also provide police escorts if a player needs to be transported to and from the hospital. It’s not clear why Speight wasn’t transported directly to a hospital by ambulance.
Instead, Wilton sat in the front seat of a van provided by Purdue and driven by a student. The Speights, two medical trainers, a doctor and Thai Trinh, an orthopedic sports medicine fellow at Michigan, piled into a van to be transported to the student health clinic, about two blocks from the stadium.
“We take off with no escort,” Bobby Speight said. “We can’t get through because there are barricades up and (the van driver is) directing people to move them.”
“They take us in the basement,” Bobby Speight said. “It’s very dimly lit. Halfway down the hall, there’s a (radiology) technician. Wilton is in (partial) uniform and still wearing cleats, and she asks Wilton his name. The (van driver) says he needs an X-ray. (The technician) looks at me and says, ‘I need your insurance card.’”
That’s when Trinh stepped in, Speight said. NCAA bylaws require member institutions to provide student-athletes insurance for medical expenses related to athletic injuries.
The Michigan doctors requested several X-rays, and there was a short delay because of issues putting the X-ray requests in the computer system. The technician was able to get the pictures, but transmission to a satellite facility failed, making it impossible for the Michigan doctors to examine the X-rays on a high-resolution screen. They thought they could miss diagnosing even the smallest of fractures on a lower-resolution version.
Michigan’s team doctors decided Speight should be transported to a local hospital, but the Purdue officials didn’t know which hospital to send them to, Bobby Speight said.
Trinh requested a local EMS take the group. A volunteer rescue team was the only option available, as full-time EMS units were dispatched elsewhere, Speight said he was told.
“And we waited 20 minutes for the rescue squad team,” he said. “At that point, Wilton says he has tingling in his legs and is in substantial pain. The EMT riding in the back of the ambulance asks us if we need an IV or vital monitoring and Trinh replied, ‘No, but we need him stable and immobile. This is a back injury.’ We stop at a light, and the Michigan doctor asks how long is it going to take, and (the EMT) said 30 to 45 minutes on game day.
Just responded to his own post?
Poster whose username celebrates a guy attacked one of his own players after he allowed a punt to be blocked....in practice
Bobby Speight said when his sons were being recruited, he never would have considered exploring the medical staff and medical care provided by a university. Now?
“I would cross off a school without a high-end medical program,” he said.
... or anything resembling a medical program, for that matter.
Referring to the walk-through in July, ...
But an internal Michigan memo written by Scott Goldschmidt, Michigan assistant director of football operations and obtained by The Detroit News, described a different take on the Purdue visit in July and later requests. Goldschmidt, who made the tour of the Purdue facilities in July, wrote he viewed portions of the visitors locker room.
“At that time, the locker room was being used as an office for construction contractors and storage space for the stadium’s pavilion seating,” he wrote, adding the individual giving him the tour did not have keys to “view portions of the training facilities inside the locker room.”
More on game day and Purdon't RA stadium...
Goldschmidt was told there is no air conditioning but was assured “that cooling fans could be provided as necessary.” He wrote on Sept. 20 he reached out regarding the cooling units but his call was not returned.
On Sept. 22, the day before the game, he said the Michigan equipment staff was provided two fans for the locker room.
There were electrical and mechanical failures in the locker room on the day of the game, including power to one of the fans, Goldschmidt wrote in the memo. The 90-minute pregame countdown clock in the locker room failed and had to be replaced.
“Following the game, both fans had to be removed due to concerns of electrical units plugged in near the locker room showers,” he wrote.
None of those events would have occurred had he properly been placed on a stretcher and immobilized. He would have been immediately placed in an ambulance and transported to x-rays. The dark and dingy locker room has nothing to do with the medical treatment received. A failure to identify a potential spinal injury lies fully on Michigan.
Purdue should upgrade their facilities, no doubt. However, of all started with Michigan's failure to recognize or treat it as potentially serious. All of the actions stemmed off the misdiagnosis.
Oh, horse(crap).
There's plenty of medical assistance at each game.
The fact that the UM clowns decided NOT to take this seriously is the real problem.
Had Speight been properly handled on the field, he would have been properly secured, carried off the field on a stretcher, placed in an ambulance and take immediately for medical evaluation.
The fact the UM clowns allowed him to walk off the field is ONE of the biggest problem you idiots face in this finger pointing exercise.
what's laughable is that Speight's parents think it's a PLUS for an athlete to play for a university with a medical school WHICH ALLOWS PLAYERS WITH SPINAL INJURIES TO WALK OFF THE FRIGGIN' FIELD.
You got that right.
He sure wasn't all there.
Moronic doesn't even begin to describe you dumb@sses.
Ahhh... it's become nothing more than a finger-pointing exercise.
Screwups at UM . . . now they're looking for a scapegoat. Too bad for them there are pictures, video, etc., showing them to be the incompetent POS's they are.
Yeah, it's the first time UM has been to Purdue.
Total dumb@sses.
Clueless, classes dumb@sses.
Your moronic trainers didn't WANT an ambulance. Told him to "walk it off", and walked him to the BENCH!
IDIOTS!
Michigan doctors look really panicked and concerned when the are allowing him to walk off the field after being out and not moving as his parents stated
"Trainer" on the right: "C'mon, son . . . WALK IT OFF. That way we can blame Purdue for your injuries."
"Trainers" on the left: "Hey, if we can get him off the field quick enough we can order some chicken wings for the trip home."
You are right, Chief. Harbaugh was on the sidelines, not with Speight. Yet, Harbaugh's mind control as to what the Speights witnessed somehow works remotely. He's awesome.
Not a doctor and haven't dispensed with any medical opinions. Others here, though ...
Absolutely fine, just like they have been FOR THE DECADES MEATCHICKEN HAS BEEN PLAYING HERE.
moron.
Okay, chief. Harbaugh is the idiot you portray him, and can only function if he has mind control. He's an idiot. Got it.
No, people have just been discussing the situation, and the stupidity of people like you.
"I like college athletes who aren'
I agree. They are just fine. Better team and better facilities than any IN high school program. No comparison, really. Really.
UM chose to play PU? Yeah, I blame UM and the other B1G schools for keeping PU in the conference.
Yeah, it's so bad you dumb@sses have been coming here for DECADES.
Your dumb@ss trainers had him WALK OFF THE FRIGGIN' FIELD, you dipstick!
Similar threads
