By Leah McCluskey, Staff Writer
Abigail Johnson, a freshman on the women’s basketball team, fainted during the team’s exhibition game on Nov. 4.
It took local emergency services around 10 minutes to arrive on the scene and evaluate her condition.
Steve Mest, the associate athletics director for external relations, said emergency medical services and other qualified personnel are only offered if necessary.
“The protocols and procedures for assisting an injured athlete are established on the scene first by St. Bonaventure’s athletic training staff,” Mest said. “We have a full-time, certified athletic trainer assigned to women’s basketball, Olivia Vita-Farnsworth, and another, Seth Tisdale, assigned to men’s basketball.”
When asked if there was a stretcher available on site, Mest said, “Stretchers are no longer commonly used and one was not needed in this case.”
However, EMS took Johnson off the court and she was later flown to a hospital in Erie.
Mest assured that St. Bonaventure is capable of managing emergency situations.
“We are completely prepared to handle sports-related injuries,” Mest said. “Our student-athletes are in great hands under the care of Olivia and Brad, and from our entire athletic training staff led by Brad Pruett.”
If a situation is beyond the scope of the trainers’ expertise or in a true state of emergency, Mest said that emergency medical services have the ability to quickly report to the scene.
“Thanks to our partnership with, and in proximity to, Allegany, we can have an ambulance on campus within 10 minutes, sometimes less than that,” Mest said.
Though some injuries have occurred, the university has been meeting to discuss how to better react to and handle these incidents, should another transpire.
“As best practiced in any business, we are constantly looking at how we can become even better,” Mest said.
Johnson returned to campus the
day following the incident. The university has not released any additional information about her current condition.
Sports Information did not permit student athletes or trainers to comment.
