Annual Pub 2023 FINAL - Flipbook - Page 23
SUMMER 2023 MAGAZINE
Home to NHL, NFL, WNBA, and multiple minor league teams and hosting mass-attended
events from the National Finals Rodeo to the half-a-million-person rave, Electric Daisy
Carnival, Las Vegas events attract millions of attendees, both local and visiting, each year.
PHOTO: NICK BARNETTE
Emergency Medicine Program Director Ross Berkeley, MD, notes, “These kinds of events
have tens of thousands of individuals in the same location at the same time, potentially
either with heat exposure, potentially with toxin exposure, possibly different drugs and
alcohol, along with all their underlying medical illnesses.”
The emergency medicine department’s working relationship with these events – where
residents and faculty are both given the opportunity to provide medical support – offers
unique training opportunities. Regarding the National Finals Rodeo, Dr. Berkeley says,
“People don’t typically think of Las Vegas as a place where someone may get stepped on
by a bull or thrown from a horse and end up with a shoulder dislocation or brain injury.”
Dr. Smith has taken advantage of these training opportunities. “We are able to attend any
event at Allegiant Stadium including the concerts and sporting events,” Dr. Smith says,
adding that she had worked the Raiders-49ers game the week prior in an emergency
medical services (EMS) capacity for attendees.
While participation in event medicine is not a training requirement for residents, Dr.
Berkeley notes that “this is a wonderful opportunity for both residents and faculty,
for that matter, to diversify their experience and to help avoid potential burnout. It’s
an opportunity to 昀nd ful昀llment beyond the care that we provide in the emergency
department in a very different kind of environment.”
Las Vegas’s wide-ranging events are not the only touristic offering that require medical
support; the many outdoor activities the valley is famous for also need a medical
infrastructure.
Drs. Berkeley and Smith, alongside emergency resident Ian Isby, MD, have conducted
research on fatalities at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. Dr. Berkeley, who
serves as the EMS medical advisor for Lake Mead, says that of the 423 sites that the
National Park Service manages, Lake Mead is one of the top ten most visited and also
sees the most fatalities.
