When Marco Simoncelli tragicallay died last year at Sepang, I posted an emotional rant (I was still trying to wrap my head around his death) regarding how the Italian was handled by the track side medical crew following his fatal accident and that Dorna should step up and train volunteers on how to act in these type situations, so when last April Dorna and FIM announced that they implementing two Medical Intervention Vehicles and had hired a small team of doctors from the “Instituto Universitario USP Dexeus in Barcelona to support, supplement and assist the existing medical service provided locally” and even if was stated they “would not replace the local medical personnel but will work together with them and where necessary provide assistance, support and advice,” we breathed a sigh of relief thinking finally something was being done to improve the way riders should be handled after being injured.
However, if you saw Hector Barbera crash during yesterday’s free practice at Indianapolis (video after the jump) that occurred at the last turn before the straight, you may have also seen this particular photo that travelled across Twitter like a flashfire of how the injured Ducati rider, who fell on his head (the top of his helmet was scraped) was moved by the medical volunteers onto a stretcher.
Now we may not be orthopedics, neurologists or trauma specialists, but anyone with any good sense knows that if someone falls on his head he may have the high possibility of having sustained a neck injury or worse serious spinal cord injuries, so someone will have to give scandalized fans a big explanation on why Barbera was moved and lifted like a sack of potatoes instead of being immobilized with a cervical collar and a spine board slid underneath him by the medical volunteer reponse team.
The Spaniard was later diagnosed with three cracked thoracic vertebrae (this is the third time in 10 months that he’s suffered fractures and in 2008 at Motegi he had sustained other vertebrae fractures).