My Worst Day "At The Office"

It was my last year at Stanford as a Senior Resident. Marie asked me if I wanted to make an extra $25, moonlighting as the doctor at a Redwood City, California,  High School football game. In those days, particularly to a medical resident with a checking account balance hovering at about $10.00 on a good day, the chance to make $25 was irresistable. Since sports medicine was not my field, I asked a  fellow resident  (an orthopedist) how to be a doctor at a high school football game: "Whatever you do, don't touch an injured player" was his advice. "All of the players have their own doctors, and if someone is really injured, call for an ambulance."

I showed up precisely at the designated time, but found that the game was in already in progress.  One of the grumpy  high school coaches showed me where I was supposed to sit and immediately left to go yell at his players on the field.  When a player was injured, I left the bench to make sure the student was OK. If he looked  bruised, I sent him to the bench for a 5 minute respite and went back to my seat.  By the time I sat down and looked at the field, his coach had been him back in the game, again and again and again.

It took about 2 minutes to figure out my role: I was there because California law required the presence of a doctor.  It did not require that the coach (or the student)  take the doctor's advice. And he didn't.

A few days ago, an article about dementia among former football players appeared.  Professional football teams and their managements were pictured as villains.  But my experience taught that the problem of player abuse began earlier, when high school football coaches sent injured students, for whom they were responsible, back into the game.