August 2002
Volume 66 |
Number 8
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SPOTLIGHT ON…
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| Perry G. Fine,
M.D., 2002 Winter Olympic Physician |
Stephen H. Jackson, M.D.
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"Perry's most exciting incident
was his on-the-ice 'rescue' (with cervical spine
precautions) of a Korean speed skater who crashed
during the 5,000-meter relay race."
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Perry G. Fine, M.D., ASA member and Professor of Anesthesia at
the University of Utah School of Medicine, played a major role
in the 2002 Winter Olympics as a member of a team of volunteer
physicians whose responsibility was to care for athletes and spectators
alike. His purview included the "Field of Play" (rink-side)
coverage of the competition at the ice arena, Medical Clinic for
Athlete Care inside the arena and the aid station within the arena
proper to tend to any ill or injured spectators. These care areas
were the equivalent of mini-emergency rooms where "we could
do almost anything except for, ironically, general anesthesia."
Professionally, Dr. Fine is Associate Medical Director of the
University of Utah Pain Management Center, a renowned bioethicist,
long-time member of the ASA Committee on Ethics and an expert
in palliative medicine.
Dr. Fine's background for securing his position from among the
thousands of applicants worldwide included his avid interest and
extensive involvement in competitive sports and sports medicine
as well as his fluency in both of the official Olympic languages
(French and English). He has served as the sideline trauma physician
for the University of Utah football team and provided medical
coverage for other NCAA events hosted in Salt Lake City. When
he volunteered to work with the Winter Olympics medical team,
his experience and reputation in the sports/medical community
as a "team player" already had been well-established.
Among his many responsibilities, Dr. Fine helped to supervise
teams of roaming medics (emergency medical technicians and registered
nurses) who responded to spectator injuries and illnesses. They
handled medical problems for the hundreds of thousands of people
inside the Olympic Square (the area inside the security perimeter
surrounding the competition), attending the competition, medal
ceremonies and sponsor entertainment.
The high-profile threats of bioterrorist attacks were handled
independently by others, although there were general protocols
for evacuation and triage. Also independent of Dr. Fine's sphere
of influence was the athlete drug-testing program, which ultimately
resulted in the disqualification of several medalists during the
competition.
This fact not- withstanding, Perry did use his pharmacological
prowess to separate the emergency drugs that were necessary for
spectator care and resuscitation from those absolutely forbidden
for competitors. In fact, he believed that his most important
input as an anesthesiologist was to assure adequate and appropriate
advanced cardiac life support supplies, equipment and protocol.
Perry's most exciting incident was his on-the-ice "rescue"
(with cervical spine precautions) of a Korean speed skater who
crashed during the 5,000-meter relay race. He recalls that "it
went quite well considering that the skater didn't speak English,
the rescue team didn't speak Korean, and the only translators
available (the coaches) were forbidden by Olympic rules to come
onto the ice." However, even this occurrence had failed to
lend him any "celebrity" status until serendipity intervened,
resulting in his being interviewed live on NBC's "Today Show."
Meaningful casual interaction with the athletes was limited to
the days prior to the start of the Olympics when he provided rink-side
medical coverage at the practice facility for short track and
figure skating. Particularly exciting was Perry's close relationship
with the Canadian pairs figure skating champions Jamie Sale and
David Pelletier who eventually shared the gold medal with the
Russians following the highly publicized judging scandal. Able
to converse in French, he had previously befriended them at a
skating venue preliminary before the Olympics.
Among the numerous medical situations he encountered, the most
challenging involved managing a spectator in the upper reaches
of the arena with a severely physiologically compromising tachyarrythmia
that required intravenous access and drug treatment "in the
setting of poor lighting, minimal floor space between arena seating
rows and the high anxiety of the surrounding spectators."
Perry spent more than two years preparing for his role, and he
had to be absent from work for the three weeks of actual Olympic
competition. Although there was no remuneration for his efforts,
he was the recipient of some "perks": an Olympic uniform,
tickets to the rehearsal of the opening ceremonies and tickets
to several of the daily post-competition concerts (such as the
Dave Matthews Band and Foo Fighters), the largess of which were
enjoyed more appropriately by Dr. Fine's teenage daughters.
Despite his impressive medical responsibilities and prime-time
television "notoriety," Dr. Fine said that he "was
not able to 'snow' my wife and daughters, who will tell you that
I still put on the ol' pants one leg at a time, and slowly at
that."
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