I’ll admit it right now: I don’t know much about professional wrestling outside of the lessons I learned from LB during our glorious Fanfyte podcast days, and the bits and pieces I pick up from our incredible Fanfyte editor, Colette Arrand. But this weekend, Fanbyte staffers sent me images from AEW’s Double or Nothing event on Sunday night, asking for an EMT’s opinion of the “medical attention” MJF received after getting his ass handed to him (heartily!) in the ring.
Need a @Danielleri review of this EMS work later this week https://t.co/iYtztMQEPT
— John E Warren ♿️???? (@FloppyAdult) May 30, 2022
In the short clip, MJF is fitted with a cervical collar (the thin plastic ring we use to stabilize a person’s neck after trauma), then given oxygen to his nose and… eyes, and wheeled off on a stretcher. His head is hanging off said stretcher, and my guy isn’t even strapped in, so I definitely expected him to fall off or get smashed in the head again as part of the show. We didn’t see that, but I still suspect the “EMTs” here are on team Wardlow.
As a certified, practicing New York State EMT, I decided to break down every element of medical malfeasance here.
The C-Collar: B
This is the one part that might not be completely messed up, though it’s honestly just hard to see them putting it on him since the “medical professional” in the foreground kind of blocks the shot.
In real life, we measure a patient’s neck and slide this underneath the natural void in the neck — this appears to basically happen. Typically, we have one person holding manual stabilization immediately even before the collar goes on. And the collar here is honestly a little off-kilter, which you can see in the medium shot kind of leading away. But it appears to be on in basically the general position; it’s not, like, inside out or anything. So if I had a new EMT apply this and bring the patient into my own ambulance, I would gently adjust and otherwise accept this one.
The Oxygen Mask: F
I think this is what everyone noticed, and perhaps clued folks into the fact that Mr. MJF isn’t getting quite the level of medical attention a trauma patient deserves. The “EMT” places the non-rebreather (NRB for short) mask over his nose and… eyes, which do not need oxygen in the same way. In fact, blowing non-humidified oxygen into a patient’s eyes may dry them out a fair amount, especially at the typical liters per minute we use with an NRB (10-15, considered “high flow” oxygen).
Maybe this was intended as a deeper commentary on improper mask use during the time of COVID?
He also pretty clearly pushes the stretcher (and MJF) by the head, so I’m not sure what’s going on there. Some alternative medicine healing shit? Whatever it is, it is incorrect!
The Stretcher: F and also, you should probably be fired
Arguably worse than the improper mask placement is the fact that MJF’s head is hanging off the back of the stretcher and he isn’t strapped in at all. If anything says “I secretly want to dump my patient onto the ground and break every bone in their face,” it’s this.
That’s a big no-no in this profession, for the record!
Overall: F
This is obviously a pretty poor job for a team of dedicated medical professionals. But truly, I have seen worse.
