October 11, 2008
Orioles' Bancells earns huge save for waving Hendricks to hospital
IT WOULD have been so easy to make the wrong decision. The Orioles were
getting ready to return home from St. Petersburg, Fla., on Thursday night, and
longtime bullpen coach Elrod Hendricks just didn't feel right.
It would have been so easy to put him on the airplane and tell him to check
with his physician Friday morning. It was only a two-hour flight, after all,
and everybody was in a hurry to get home.
Except in the case of a stroke, the first three hours can be the difference
between life and death, and something about the symptoms that Hendricks
described prompted Orioles trainer Richie Bancells to make one of the most
important decisions of his career.
"What he described, numbness in the side of his face and the fact that he
was slurring his words, those pretty much are the signs of a stroke," Bancells
said yesterday. "Something was not right. Then it was a simple matter of
getting on the plane or not getting on the plane."
Hendricks wanted to get on the plane, but Bancells told manager Lee
Mazzilli he and Elrod would be going to the hospital, instead.
There is a drug - a miracle drug, really - that can dynamically diminish
the long-term impact of a stroke, but only if it is administered within the
first few hours after onset. Hendricks got it in time, but he probably would
not have if he had gotten on the plane and tried to make it home.
"I talked to [Hendricks' wife] Merle," said vice president of baseball
operations Mike Flanagan, "and she kept saying over and over that Richie saved
his life."
Flanagan knows how important those three hours can be, because he has seen
the unfortunate other side.
"I've known cases, even a family member who had that happen," he said. "It
was not found for six hours, and now that person is wheelchair-bound and
handicapped."
Hendricks is improving, though more tests have to be performed today before
a decision is made on when he can return to Baltimore. The fact that he is
tentatively scheduled to come home tomorrow is another sign that Bancells'
quick thinking made a huge difference.
"I guess I've always had the fear that something might happen on an
airplane, which is not the best place to be when something happens," Bancells
said. "You just react and do what you're trained to do ... and get it to the
next level of medical attention."
Sounds simple enough, but it isn't. Doing your job right isn't always a
guarantee of the right outcome, as Bancells and assistant trainer Brian Ebel
learned a couple of years ago in Fort Lauderdale.
When Steve Bechler collapsed after suffering heatstroke, they did
everything by the book, but the young pitcher died the next day - and you
wouldn't be human if you didn't carry that kind of thing around with you for a
while.
It didn't help that the company that produced the ephedra-based diet
supplement that contributed to Bechler's death filed a countersuit against the
Orioles and tried to place the blame on the Orioles' medical staff, but
everyone knew Bancells and Ebel did everything they could.
"We sent them a note of appreciation for their work on the Bechler case,"
Flanagan said, "and now he [Bancells] is in line for another one."
If the job doesn't seem all that complicated, that's because you probably
don't have any idea what goes into being a certified athletic trainer. It
isn't just icepacks and ankle sprains. It's offseason seminars and continuing
education classes and - maybe most important - the ability to think on your
feet.
Bancells and Ebel have to stay up to speed on the treatment of a wide array
of possible injuries and illnesses, while maintaining enough basic medical
knowledge to react correctly to just about any situation.
Bancells may never see another stroke, but when he saw the signs of one
Thursday night, he acted decisively, and Hendricks' quality of life will be
much better as a result.
"Richie's personal attention was absolutely incredible," said Orioles vice
chairman Joe Foss. "He is truly one of the finest trainers in all of
professional sports."
Copyright © 2008, The Baltimore Sun
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