Quinnipiac University is a beautiful school which offers a great educational curriculum, but it comes with many flaws. The one that bothers me the most is the lack of medical assistance for students who play intramurals. It is absolutely ridiculous how there is not one trainer or someone from Health Services present at intramural games.
I realized this last year when I severely sprained my ankle playing basketball down in the gym. There was no one around for whom my friends could seek help so I was left on the ground in aching pain, hoping that I could walk on it in a couple of minutes so I could make it to Health Services. Finally after 45 minutes went by, a security officer arrived and said he would drive me to Health Services. But, first, I wanted to get an ice bag from the trainer’s room so I could keep the swelling down. I limped all the way to the trainer’s room from the far end of the basketball courts to hear that I could not receive an ice bag because I was not an “athlete.” What kind of craziness is that! I can only imagine if I was bleeding badly and have the trainer say that I could not get it wrapped up because I wasn’t an “athlete.”
A more recent example was just last week when my basketball team had an intramural game, in which one of my teammates twisted his knee badly and fell hard to the ground. Once again, there was no around who could help and my friend was left helplessly on the ground. After half an hour, security decides to finally show up and strolls in like nothing is wrong. The man didn’t often help, but more importantly to him and Quinnipiac, interrogated him like he did something wrong. The ambulance then arrived, conveniently enough 15 minutes later, and put my friend on a stretcher and brought him to the hospital for X-rays. The total time from when he initially suffered the injury until he was finally taken to the hospital: a whopping 45 minutes!
The response time to injuries is absurd. And to not have anyone with a medical background present at these games is worse. An injury is bound to happen; that is just a fact of playing competitive sports. Quinnipiac needs to prioritize their assistance for its students. If RA’s knew a party was happening on campus on a particular night, there is no doubt security would be there in five minutes. But, when a student is on the ground suffering a severe injury and they decide to show up almost 30 minutes later, then that’s a problem. Fix the problem Quinnipiac, since every penny we give to you should be used to benefit the students in every way possible.
