Jouster Seriously Injured??

[BarbarianQueen]

On Friday of Celtic Christmas weekend, a jouster for "Knights of Mayhem" went down hard and had to be carried off.  Medics were working on him outside the arena on the ground beside the royal's seats for the rest of the show (20 minutes).  Just after the show, an ambulance cam and took him away.
Any news on this?

And... does it really take that long for an ambulance to get to the festival grounds?  The cynic in me worries that the ambulance was held up until the show was over and most of the folks dispersed, in order to not interrupt the Medieval ambiance of the faire.

Anyone?

[crashbot]

Maybe the medics decided he should go after a period of monitoring.

Happened to me after a car accident, I sat on the curb for nearly 30 minutes feeling fine while the police and fire did their investigations. I tried to get up,  nearly passed out, and they sent me away in the ambulance.

[Merlin the Elder]

Being that TRF is rather remote, it wouldn't be surprising to have to wait for an ambulance, and they may not have called for it immediately. It does seem surprising to me, however, that considering the size of TRF, that they don't keep a "bus" on hand during the festival days.

[crashbot]

I would assume they do have one on the grounds when the faire is open.

[Strange]

I know for a fact that they keep an ambulance backstage, since it is parked behind our shop, and there is always someone nearby in case of emergency.
They could have been to the arena in less than 5 minutes.

[Merlin the Elder]

That makes much more sense to me, Strange...the on-site ambulance, that is. Until some statement is made by those who were present, I would not want to assume that someone was withholding transport for the sake of maintaining ambiance. That would be opening the Faire up to major liability issues.

[Strange]

Those guys take a lot of hard bumps, and I'm sure they've had their fare share of concussions, stingers, and wind-knocked-outta-yas.
He might have thought it was just a bad stinger or the like, but if it doesn't clear up after a bit, then you ride the bus.

[raevyncait]

One of my friends, who has been on circuit for a very long time, asked me if I'd heard of the show on Friday morning, & I told him that I've DVR'd but haven't watched yet, but gave him a rundown of what I've seen posted in various places about it. I told him that Charlie wants it to be next "extreme sport", he just shook his head, and when I told him that it's full contact, he said "Oh, they're gonna kill somebody".

[dreamwalker]

Injuries are the price you pay for extreme activities. My sister is a roller derby girl and there are EMT ppl and cops on site at their matches. Anyone know which knight it was?

It would be smart to have an ambulance tucked away on site given the size and density of TRF if there is going to be full contact jousting on site. It already happen on the KOM tv show when (Brian was it?) got carted away for a pretty good concussion there.

[Merlin the Elder]

Has anyone even heard how serious the injuries were?

[PollyPoPo]

Chit Chat on their Facebook page indicates the injured was Jason Armstrong, dislocated shoulder, going to be out of action for 8 weeks.

Ouch!

[Tipsy Gypsy]

Saw Jason backstage on Saturday, arm in a sling. Happy for his sake to know it wasn't as bad as it could've been. They certainly play for all the marbles.

[BarbarianQueen]

It certainly was a "mighty blow" that un-horsed both he and his opponent simultansously.  I had been watching for about 30 minutes - some of the blows were direct, some glancing, some knights were un-horsed, but this round was TOTALLY different.  Both horses seemed to have decided to run "full tilt", both lances hit absolutely squarely, and both rider were literally lifted out of their saddles and off their horses by the force of the blow and hit the ground hard.  The sound of the strike was totally different - a HUGE crash, pop of two splintering lances, bodies flying through the air, and a huge gasp from the crowd... AWESOME!!!

If all of the passes could be this energetic and accurate and thrilling, I believe they would generate a huge audience.  Unfortunately, they would go through knights like crazy!

[C Dragonworks]

Poor Jason, He is a nice guy!!!! Young and a fairly good rider but those strikes are sometimes really hard!!! I know they have an ambulance or 2 on hand but it is hard to get it in there and they would have waited unless they felt it was life or death. It was used OFTEN during the chariot and horse race years....  Who was the other rider and is he ok???

[Blue66669]

It's not hard to get an ambulance to the joust field. Like, at all. There's a direct route backstage.

[Morrigan]

I'm just guessing here... but I would IMAGINE that the delay had little to do with difficulty getting the ambulance to the location (because Warcat is right, there is a direct route from where the ambulance is parked), and more to do with the difficulty of getting damaged armor off the jouster to accurately assess the severity of the injury (and thus determine whether transport was, in fact, necessary).   Unless there is indication of a life-threatening injury, there really is no rush to transport.  

In addition, I can PROMISE you that the EMT's and paramedics on site don't care doodly-squat about the "ambiance".

[Terre Albert]

He was back on Saturday.  Only a shoulder injury nothing major.  It was more about the armor like was mentioned. 

[Breandan]

Having been knocked keester-over-tea-kettle and left dazed on the ground doing a tilt (I didn't duck fast enough) up in WA, I can assure you that it takes a while to get out of the armour safely without risking further injury. Taking off the gorget and pauldrons while maintaining C-spine is a PITA, but it was better to let the squires who knew the armour remove it than to have medics unfamiliar with it start hacking away at straps and compromise the support of the armour, making things worse. I have had it done to me, and I've had to do it to others when I was acting first-responder, and it is a tedious but necessary process.

edited to add: Come to think of it, I may be one of only a handful of medics in the country that actually knows how to remove plate-and-maille armour from a patient... wonder if that will help my resume?