UI docs help riders out along the way

ELKHART -- University of Iowa resident doctors are getting a firsthand taste of emergency medicine, a tour of Iowa and a sample of the Register's Annual Great Bicycle's Ride Across Iowa all at once this week.

Amy Maule, 26, of Monroe, La., has spent hours cruising Iowa's country roads in one of Iowa City's Care Ambulance rigs with paramedics Mike Aguilar and Darrin Hayes. She's never experienced anything quite like the colorful bike ride that takes cyclists from one side of the state to the other over a week.

Care Ambulance, which is owned by Bob Libby, provides emergency medical support along the route on RAGBRAI. The first-year resident Maule is in the emergency medicine program at UI. One of the requirements of the first years is to work on RAGBRAI for training for situations involving large crowds and events.

This week Maule and the other residents are called to provide the perspective of a physician for the various ailments -- severe and minor --RAGBRAI cyclists endure.

"We train in a hospital where you have everything you need right there, whereas out here, you have limited supplies, so you learn how to make do," Maule said.

Nine UI residents are participating in RAGBRAI XXXIX this year as first responders for riders. They staff ambulances along the route and UI's Mobile Emergency Treatment Center.

More often than not, encounters are minor, having to do with aches and pains, heat, a diabetic wanting to check his or her blood sugar or someone who needs a little bit of rest. But there also are more serious situations where cyclists crash and sustain trauma.

That's when things can get dicey for the responders.

"You deal with a lot of bikers who don't want to go to the hospital. They might need stitches, but they want to keep riding. It can take a good hit to the head to convince them they need to go," Maule said.

Ultimately, the decision rests with the individual, she said.

On Wednesday, RAGBRAI riders pedaled 56 miles from Boone through Luther, Slater, Sheldahl, Alleman, White Oak, Elkhart and Bondurant before reaching Altoona for an overnight stay.

Today, cyclists will go through Mitchellville, Colfax, Baxter and Rock Creek State Park before ending in Grinnell on the 58-mile ride.

Lee Ridge, a paramedic emergency medicine instructor at UI, is the director of the rolling treatment center. The 40-foot long unit parks in one town along the route each day.

"They get a chance to be exposed to almost wilderness medicine. It's such an uncontrolled and unpredictable environment, and you have limited resources," Ridge said.

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