8 minute read
MOTOGP MEDICS
BY JOY BURGESS PHOTOS: ANDREW WHEELER AND DELL MEDICAL SCHOOL
Dr. Bedolla and his medical students turned trackside medics help keep riders safe when crashes happen
Whether it’s MotoGP, AMA Supercross or flat track, there’s a visceral reaction that happens when a rider goes down…a collective gasp from the fans in the stands or virtual viewers jumping off the couch upon impact.
But whatever the reaction, the main question on everyone’s mind is this: is the rider okay?
For me — as someone who spent time working in a Level 1 trauma center before leaving the medical field for the motorcycle industry — my initial reaction to a rider crash is to
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start mentally triaging the rider from what I can see on the screen. I just can’t seem to help myself!
Airway, Breathing and Circulation are the ABCs of first response medicine, but when it’s a motorcycle racer who’s gone down at well over 100 mph, most people wonder, how many bones did they break? Did the impact result in internal injuries that can’t be seen? Or is the rider going to jump up and be okay even after what looked like a horrific impact?
Because of my own adrenaline-packed, 12hour nightshifts helping treat all manner of traumatic injuries, I’ve always been curious about the medical professionals who deal with elite motorcycle racers. It’s emergency medicine on a whole different level, and the stakes are high when working to keep riders safe while ensuring the world-wide, live-broadcasted show goes on.
To get a behind-the-scenes look, I sat down with Dr. John Bedolla, who’s been the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for all the events at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) since 2020, including the 2021 COTA MotoGP round.
Bedolla — Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine and Assistant Director of Research Education
(specifically Emergency Medicine Residency) at Dell Medical School at the University of Texas — has been around medicine his entire life and always dreamed of being a doctor. “My parents ran a free clinic in Mexico,” Bedolla told American Motorcyclist, “and I really cut my teeth in medicine when I was very young. I moved to the U.S. to go to college and medical school, riding motorcycles a lot while in college, then went on to do both a surgical residency and an emergency medicine residency.” After becoming a doctor, Bedolla had the chance to be a crash response physician for Formula 1, and he soon became very interested in how motorcyclists race…how they negotiate corners, and what happens when they’re involved in either high-side or low-side crashes. His fascination led to him write the only medical research paper ever written on those two types of corner crashes, DR. JOHN BEDOLLA quantifying the number of injuries and
severity of injuries based on the type of crash.
“Through my work,” Bedolla said, “I got to know the Dorna Sports, Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) and AMA folks. When the opportunity came up at COTA to become the Chief Medical Officer I was a natural choice, and I’ve been the CMO for all events at COTA since 2020.”
But becoming a CMO at FIMsanctioned events isn’t easy. It requires training to receive an Official’s License from the FIM, and
that’s only the beginning.
“Once doctors have the Official’s License,” AMA Director of International Competition Bill Cumbow told us, “the next step — for working major events like a MotoGP or MX of Nations or World Superbike event — is to also have what’s called a Super License. To get that, they usually need to attend a seminar in Geneva once a year, and it’s a fairly involved training and licensing process.”
Very few people in the world hold an FIM Super License. “There are likely fewer people in the world who can do my job than there are astronauts,” Bedolla said. “And it’s such an honor and privilege to be chosen as the CMO. It comes with great responsibility, and I love that.”
Great responsibility is an understatement. The CMO is the liaison between the Dorna and FIM medical team and the local medical facility, and Bedolla’s also responsible for recruiting volunteers and other paid personnel, training them, ensuring their performance during the event, managing the medical center, and coordinating with local hospitals.
“It’s a big undertaking,” Cumbow
said. “Bedolla coordinates travel, time, ambulances and individuals in fast cars. There are usually 25-26 medical posts around the track, and each requires three people: one must be a paramedic and two are stretcher bearers. There’s also a communicator in the post who has a radio and headset.”
The event requires around 75 — or more — volunteers on the medical side alone, and many of those volunteers at COTA are medical students from Dell Medical School who are part of a very special internship program Bedolla developed.
Zane Cook
first year medical student
Dell Medical School is the only one that has a partnership with a racetrack
of this caliber. Being a part of Dr. Bedolla’s internship program is an incredible opportunity to get a glimpse into a niche field of medicine that students rarely get to experience. With over 100,000 people in the stands and motorcycles coming by you at nearly 200 mph, everything is amped up and exciting. The training we went through learning how to respond to a crash that happens at 180 mph was eye opening and expanded my understanding of the flexible way emergency medicine can be adapted.
Allison Pryor
first year medical student
Iwas a pediatric ICU nurse before
going back to medical school. More than anything, Dr. Bedolla’s internship program has taught us how to quickly triage riders — even when riders have all their gear on —then relay that information back to race control so they can make the right decisions.
What Happens When a Rider Falls?
What happens when a rider falls at MotoGP — specifically at COTA? How do the student interns respond? We asked COTA Chief Medical Officer Dr. Bedolla.
1. Make sure the motorcycle has stopped moving. 2. Run out, but only up to the paint unless you have permission from race control. Riders are basically assessed. Are they uninjured, slightly injured, or unconscious? 3. Uninjured riders are escorted off without touching them, ensuring they get out safely beyond the barrier and picked up by the rider transport crew. 4. Slightly injured riders are put on a stretcher if they can’t walk and an ambulance takes them to the medical center. 5. Unconscious riders are not moved. Interns call for help, the race is red flagged, and one to two physicians are sent via BMW safety cars to further assess the rider.
“When I see a fall on my screen in Race Control,” Dr. Bedolla told us, “I’m judging visually whether I let the race continue, yellow flag it, or red flag it. A red flag stops everything, and it’s usually reserved for riders who can’t move off the track. We must make sure that there’s no one on the racing surface unsafely, and the race is stopped until they can be moved. This is the riders’ careers though, and we don’t want to stop the race unless necessary, but safety comes first. The goal is to resume as quickly and as safely as possible.”
“I thought it would be great for students — and COTA — to have medical students learn how to be ground medics,” Bedolla said. “Not just ground assists, but medics in charge of making the rider rescue and learning how to make calls quickly. I thought it would be great for their training to see something special, participate in making quick clinical calls, and lead a team. It’s a way to bring together the medical school and COTA, getting speciallytrained people on the racetrack with specific, extensive training on rider fall rescue.”
“It’s extremely popular with medical students,” Bedolla continued. “They’re eager and engaged, and have to go through two months of training and take a test before they’re able to be a part of this program. They learn about different types of crashes, do a bunch of simulations beforehand, and they’re trained in how to treat the riders. Elite riders like to be engaged in a certain way. If they don’t need to be touched, they don’t like to be touched. Students have to capture that middle point of helping them when it’s clear they need help or leaving them alone when their body language communicates that they don’t require assistance.”
These medical students get trained in caring for riders speeding around at nearly 200 mph, Bedolla added. And this program isn’t just a one-time deal; it’s a fully developed internship program. Students not only do MotoGP, but they’re involved in Formula 1, NASCAR and every other race that happens at COTA.
“Every type of racing has its special skillset,” Bedolla noted, “and students will be trained in all of these disciplines at the end of the internship. Where do we get the people to do this 20-30 years from now? From these learners!”
Between all the responsibilities that come with being the COTA CMO and running this one-of-a-kind internship program, there’s a lot on Bedolla’s shoulders. But he relishes it.
“I love high-stakes responsibility,” Bedolla said. “I like being in situations where what I do makes a big difference, and I don’t mind if I have to make calls that are difficult. I have skin the game. This is a great position for someone who likes responsible leadership. I love seeing my students get thrilled because they’re getting hands on with motorcycle riders and helping them. And most of all, I love keeping the riders safe and making the sport safe.”
That visceral reaction still happens when we see a crash. But knowing folks like Dr. Bedolla and his cadre of medical students turned volunteers are on the scene makes a huge difference…for everyone! AMA
