Response to Sam Roberts Accident Article

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Tigerprawn

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Firstly please may I continue to wish Sam Roberts a speedy recovery from her recent accident, we all hope you will be back in the saddle very soon.

Please see below an open letter sent to Horse & Hound Magazine in response to the article printed in their magazine dated the 3rd June 2010 in reference to Sam Roberts’s accident at Area 6 Summer Show, 29th May 2010.

Dear Editor

Further to the news article in your magazine reference Sam Roberts accident at BSPS Area 6 Summer Show and the sensationalist head line on your front cover.

I personally was stewarding in the ring where the accident happened and arrived at Sams side within a minute of the accident happening. The call had already gone out for the first aider on site over the loudspeaker system and I immediately requested that an ambulance be called. The record I have in my possession from the ambulance service shows that our call was logged at 14.10 hours and that the First Response vehicle was on site with Sam by 14.16 hours. Our nurse who kindly stayed all day and covered the show for us when the first aid company we had booked failed to arrive was with Sam way before the First Response car arrived. I remained next to the scene and saw Sam being administered with gas and air and when this failed to dull the pain being given a shot of morphine and being constantly monitored and tended until the ambulance arrived. As for lying on the wet ground to have moved her without the stabilisation of the limb would have risked doing it even more damage.

I have been assured by members of the medical profession that even if the first aid company had been in attendance they could have not done more for Sam than was done for her by those who took care of her.

Could someone please tell me where the hour she lay in the rain waiting for help came from? I also have to add that by the time the accident happened the rain had ceased so perhaps the person who said she lay in the rain was at a different show to me!!!!

In addition to having the ambulance time scale there are numerous people who would vouch for the truth of what I have written above and in future perhaps you might check your facts before printing this type of news story and upsetting hard working people who give their time and expertise freely to run shows so that people can compete.

The £2 First Aid charge as most shows do to cover the cost of first aid, which unfortunately as I have said failed to appear, seems to have been a bone of contention. With six rings to man plus secretary, commentator and officials catering to cover I am afraid the last thing on our minds was the £2 charge. We will as soon as we have worked out the sum this amounts to be donating a cheque to the Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance.

Yours

Mary C Allison
Chairman BSDPS Area 6 Ltd on behalf of my hard working committee
 
A very well written letter, am personally relieved to hear your story. I admire you being able to set it out so calmly, you must have been furious!
I do think that stories of this nature are not well served by inaccurate and sensationalist treatment if that is what has occurred here.
I hope HH responds with an apology.
Best wishes.
 
Well she was certainly better attended than if she had gone out on a hack and fallen off resulting in a broken leg. I think some horse people always like a drama don't they and if there's an opportunity to criticize they'll find it.

I do think its a shame that you have had the need to respond though because it smacks of damage limitation, it would be far better to have a balanced news report in the first place.
 
LHS said:
Well she was certainly better attended than if she had gone out on a hack and fallen off resulting in a broken leg. I think some horse people always like a drama don't they and if there's an opportunity to criticize they'll find it.


Absolutely!
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LHS said:
Well she was certainly better attended than if she had gone out on a hack and fallen off resulting in a broken leg. I think some horse people always like a drama don't they and if there's an opportunity to criticize they'll find it.
Click to expand...

Absolutely !!
 
Thank you all so much for your support. We were mortified to read the article, the main concern of everyone on that day was Sam and we wish her a speedy recovery. Just a pity the Horse and Hound didn't wait to get their facts right first Lets hope they do the decent thing and print the letter in full in this week's magazine with an apology not only to the area but especiallly Sam and everyone the article caused upset to by it's inaccurate account.

The above was posted as my personal opinion and not on behalf of the area.
 
Agree with all thats been said already so no point repeating it but will add
was always led to believe that you never move an seriously injured person unless life threatening for fear of doing more damage.You don't even put a cushion under head lest kneck/head area already compromised would just be trying to keep warm and cover from rain,things may have changed so correct me if wrong
TBH if you'd moved her and caused more injury you'd be getting miscalled for that I'm sure.
 
I was surprised to read that the event went ahead because a nurse was attending - nurses do not necessarily have any first aid training. My mother is a nurse and has no specific first aid training. She has always said that in case of an accident she would give assistance but would not say that she is a nurse as this would leave her open to being sued if anything went wrong.

If this is an accurate report, I believe to have been an irresponsible course of action to have taken, both on the part of the nurse and the event organisers.
 
We are a professional news-led title and could not possibly survive, let alone remain Britain’s leading equestrian title, if we did not prepare our stories in a thorough, balanced and accurate manner. If we did not, we would be bankrupted by law suits. As it is, we have not faced one for many years. We follow strict processes to ensure we get our facts right and always speak to several people about every incident we cover to ensure accuracy and balance when researching articles.

As Mrs Allison knows, I am currently corresponding with her to try to establish why some of the points in her letter contradict what she told our H&H reporter on the phone the day we prepared our story -- “Our response time was not good and I admit that” -- and her statement that the nurse providing first aid cover was walking someone else’s dog at the time of the accident. Additionally we have spoken to other people who witnessed the accident whose accounts do not correlate with all the contents of the letter.

Additionally, not all forum users may understand that there is a distinct difference between the service that can be provided to an injured person by a First Responder (first aider) as opposed to a proper paramedic (who is trained sufficiently to know how to move an injured person).

I remain happy to consider printing a further response from Mrs Allison in a future issue but, as with anything we print, need to be satisfied that the material is completely accurate, and thus must iron out the apparent contradictions first.

Lucy Higginson
H&H Editor
 
Personally I'd find it a bit risky to rely on a ' chat' on the phone for the basis of an article as you are leaving yourself open to misinterpretation, embellishment or as we are seeing confliction of stories.
 
LHS said:
Personally I'd find it a bit risky to rely on a ' chat' on the phone for the basis of an article as you are leaving yourself open to misinterpretation, embellishment or as we are seeing confliction of stories.
Click to expand...

Not really. The interview would (should) have been recorded, for exactly the reasons we have here now.
 
Just to clear up any misinformation that we produce news stories from "chats on the phone", any conversation I, or anyone in my news team has, is timed, dated and recorded (on paper) as is legally required. Our notebooks are also stored for five years (mine for seven) should any legal questions/situations arise or should we be asked to give evidence in court, as has been the case in the past.

News stories in Horse & Hound are researched thoroughly and NEVER written lightly. I myself produced this one, after conversations with many, many different people during the course of that bank holiday Monday.

If anyone ever has any queries about H&H news and how the stories are produced, please do not hesitate to contact me directly.

Abigail Butcher
H&H head of news.
 
Surely the point is that Sam was on wet ground and in a lot of pain for approximately an hour. Whether it was still raining is immaterial - it had been and it is not comfortable lying on wet grass even without a badly broken leg. Nobody is questioning that she should have been moved, it is the fact that she couldn't be due to inadequate ambulance cover that is the issue. She was not hacking, she was competing at a show where medical cover is expected and paid for and I would think it was the longest hour of her life.
 
I would imagine that the nurse had some kind of first aid qualification (I used to have one, although I let it lapse when I stopped coaching as I am useless at first aid - fainting at the sight of blood is not helpful...)

A paramedic ambulance is not a requirement for most shows, just first aiders. With the "planned" first aid cover she would almost certainly have been waiting just as long as a broken leg, while painful is not immediately life threatening, and an ambulance could well be diverted to a more life threatening call...

The question of whether a dedicated paramedic ambulance should be on site at all horse events, all events involving jumping is one which may arise as a result. Point to points require a paramedic ambulance, an all terrain ambulance and first aiders at each fence, as well as a doctor, BE require first aiders when there is no jumping and a paramedic ambulance for any jumping phases. Generally BE have a couple of ambulances/ transfer to a road ambulance as the competiton can't go on if the Ambulance is tied up... Maybe large shows should have more requirements???
 
Just to clarify,
A broken leg, particularly one as complicated as suffered by the Lady in question can account for massive internal blood loss, and is indeed a medical emergency. Injuries such as this require rapid evacuation by trained staff to prevent the condition worsening. Waiting around on wet grass whilst potentially already shocked is sub optimal, and needs addressing.

Phil
 
As someone to have suffered a break of the leg bones very similar to the person in question, and to have been on wet ground for a longer duration, i canclarrify it can seem like the longest time in anyones life and no amount of morphine can dull the pain.
 
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