Essentia Health nurse serves Grandma’s Marathon

Angie Brown Volunteers As Chief Medical Captain And Medical Volunteer Coordinator

By Connie Wirta

Medical care is just steps away for runners competing in Grandma’s Marathon and the Gary Bjorklund Half-marathon, thanks to Angie Brown and her team of medical volunteers.

Angie makes sure her team is ready for anything, from a blister to a heart attack. Her experience as a registered nurse in the Emergency Department at Essentia Health-St. Mary’s Medical Center serves her well when more than 15,000 runners are under the team’s care on race day.

For five years, Angie has served as the marathon’s chief medical captain and medical volunteer coordinator. She and the race’s medical director, Dr. Ben Nelson, see their duties stretching from the starting line in Two Harbors to beyond the finish line in Duluth’s Canal Park.

As volunteer coordinator, Angie recruits and organizes medical volunteers from across the Northland who staff 12 first aid stations and four medical tents along the 26.2mile race course along with a large medical tent in Canal Park. The team includes physicians, nurses, certified athletic trainers, physical therapists, paramedics, medics and emergency medical technicians.

As medical captain, Angie orders all the medical supplies and equipment, sets up the medical stations and coordinates care on race day.

“Angie has a deep dedication to

Grandma’s Marathon,” says Dr. Nelson, a sports medicine physician at the Essentia Health-Duluth Clinic. “She donates her vacation to inventory and stock our medical storage area. She responds to hundreds of emails every year. Only someone as dedicated as Angie could attend to all the details she does.”

The biggest challenge is never knowing how many runners will seek care, or what kind of care they’ll need, Angie explains. Weather plays a big factor. In 2017, when the thermometer hit 82 degrees, the medical team treated 559 runners. Last year’s cooler weather, with a high of just 57 degrees, brought in 147 runners.

Angie was recruited as a marathon volunteer 14 years ago by another Emergency Department nurse, Herb Dillon. He still volunteers but trained her to be the medical captain and volunteer coordinator. Her right-hand person is Christine Perry, who works as a health unit coordinator in Essentia Health-St. Mary’s Medical Center’s Surgery Unit.

“Herb ran the medical tent like a MASH unit,” Angie says. “We’ve brought in more technology and I think runners are doing a better job training for the marathon. Most of our patients are discharged from the tent because they’re young and healthy.”

The Canal Park tent has 60 cots and most runners escorted from the finish line need to simply rest and recover. But some are critically ill and need emergency medications or treatments. At any time, runners are vomiting, lying in ice baths, shivering under blankets, completely confused and disoriented or unable to walk on broken bones, Dr. Nelson says. “We depend on our nurses and physicians to recognize threatening signs and begin treatment when necessary,” he says. Runners who critically ill or not responding to basic treatments are transported to local emergency departments.

“It’s like we take the Emergency Room and move it into a canvas tent. It’s controlled chaos,” Angie says. “Everyone has a job, and everyone knows what that job is and has it covered. Overall, I’m just coordinating the flow of the day, just like we do in the ER.”

“Working in the Emergency Department has conditioned Angie to work under intense conditions. She can handle adversity and long days,” Dr. Nelson says. “Angie, like other ED providers, can think clearly and solve problems under pressure.”

Angie says the volunteers share a strong sense of camaraderie, with many returning year after year. It also has become a family affair. Angie has recruited her husband, two teenage daughters, sister, mother, mother-in-law, father, father-in-law, brother-in-law, nieces and nephews to help with various duties.

“The race would not happen without volunteers,” Angie says. “It’s amazing how the community comes together, not only as medical volunteers. It’s the people at the water stations and the people cheering the runners on. We have a strong sense of community and that really shows on race day. Regardless of our backgrounds, we’re here to support the runners.”

Countless hours spent preparing for the race and the promise of another long day don’t deter Angie.

“I come down to Canal Park around 4:30 or 5 in the morning on race day and I still get butterflies,” Angie says. “My adrenaline gets pumping. I stand under the finish line and I say ‘OK. It’s going to be a good day.’” D

Connie Wirta is an editor for Essentia. She wrote this for The Woman Today.

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By Anne Holy and Jade Swanson

Justas in building a home, building a stable and sound financial world starts from the ground up.

The first thing you need is a solid base — a savings account to help you get through the unexpected things that come up. So if your furnace or car breaks down or you have an unexpected medical bill, etc., you will have a resource to use instead of having to bring out that credit card. The best way to build up a savings account is to put something in that savings account every month — roughly about 1/12 of what you think you will need on an annual basis.

Next you need to seriously start tackling any debt you have above and beyond a mortgage, student loans or car payment — we’ll talk about these in a minute. If you have credit card debt or debt other than the previously three mentioned types of loans — you are probably spending more than your income every month. So that means you need to get serious about a budget — yes, the dreaded B word. If you have credit card debt that keeps growing, taking a serious look at your spending habits will really make life easier in the long run. So sit down and make a list of all the bills you need to pay every month. These