Adrienne Simmons
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As a trainer and corner man I understand the nature of combat sports. The risk that fighters take is a great one. At the same time the promoters should also understand the risk of the combat sports they put on. This Sunday Adrienne Simmons was severely injured during her bout. The fight was stopped and ruled a knock out. The ring doctor entered the ring shortly after the fight was called. He spent about five minutes assessing Adrienne she was dazed for about three minutes the then started to come around. The doctor then began to ask her questions like "what state is she in?" and "was she in a fight" Adrienne initially was not able to respond but after a few seconds she was able to be more aware of what was going on. She realized that she was on the ground and asked us if she was ok. The doctor told her she had been knocked out and that she lost the fight. At this point the doctor asked for the paramedics. She began to cry and the doctor decided to let her lie down for awhile. The time in which all this occurred was about ten to fifteen minutes. The venue was being held up so the officials asked us and the doctor to get her out the ring. We had to carry her to the fighters waiting area because she couldn't walk on her own. When we got her to the back she began to loose consciousness again. At this point the paramedics still had not arrived. The other doctors came to aid the initial physician. they worked on her for about five minutes before the paramedics arrived to give her aid. The paramedics that came to help were from the fire department. The kept trying to help her wake up but she would not. They gave her oxygen and tried to stimulate her with pain. they did this for about another ten minutes they finally concluded that she had a brain injury and that she had to be taken to the hospital. Twenty five minutes have passed and she still was not on a stretcher getting prepared to go to the hospital. When the second crew arrived the hooked her up to a EKG machine and took her pulse and blood pressure. They then called for an air lift because they couldn't get her to The Orlando Regional Medical center fast enough do to the traffic. So we had to wait till the helicopter showed up to take her to the hospital. At this point about forty minutes passed when the helicopter finally showed up. Adrienne was put on a stretcher finally a taken to the helicopter. We left the hotel to go to the hospital where she was taken. When we finally spoke to a doctor about her condition we were told it would be very difficult for them to help her do to the fact it took over an hour to get her to the hospital. I don't understand how there is no requirement for an ambulance to be present on the property when an event like this is going on. These people pay to go go fight and ask for nothing in return but acknowledgment of skill. The least the IKF can do for them is to have ambulance ready to take them to the hospital as quickly as possible. It makes absolutely no sense that it takes an hour to get anyone to a hospital only ten miles away. The IKF has to change their policies on providing medical assistance to keeping medics on the grounds during any fighting event.
- Cito Berger
