NAGOYA: The numbers are as fascinating as the work they do.
Four hundred fifty kilograms of medical equipment; five massage tables, with one portable one; five individual ice bath barrels; 150 kilograms of medicines in 20 boxes, including drugs to fight infections, painkillers and other symptomatic medicines. And Rs 50 lakh to transport everything medical-related from India to Japan. And tele-consultations whenever required.
It doesn’t end there. Setting up a war room to monitor athletes, a game-ready cryo-compression unit that uses cold water circulation for recovery, as well as tele-consultation and more. All these for athletes. There have been instances when they have got a call at 2am. Finally, they get about three to four hours of sleep.
Monitoring is crucial. In a decentralised Asian Games like this, it becomes even more challenging. “You have got multiple fronts in multiple areas," says Dinshaw Pardiwala, chief medical officer of the Indian Olympic Association's (IOA) medical unit. "You have to have real-time monitoring,” he adds during an interaction with this daily.
The CMO says that since the centre is not a centralised unit, which they have learned after landing in the country, they have had to adapt quickly. The six-member team were put up in a hotel and had to form mobile units that would reach venues whenever they were needed. The ortho surgeon said that they have got six Normatech — air compression devices — as well.
Not just that. “When we realised that we were not getting rooms, we moved to a hotel and set up a war room," he says. There are about 45 people in a Whatsapp group and they have a daily briefing every day before events start. The IOA and sports ministry have been very helpful in providing everything the needed. “In fact, the sports ministry told us to not think about anything,” he said.
What kind of ailments do they treat? It's really surprising to know that the most common illness among athletes is upper respiratory infections. “That's the most common illness athletes complain about and they need to be treated fast because they have to be back on the ground,” he says.
It wasn't easy to start with. Because several rooms were cancelled, most of the equipment is at the athletes' plaza in Games Village – the container ones. The ones treating the athletes also had to get a special licence to practice medicine in Japan. "We got the licence before coming to Japan," he adds.
