Four College of Medicine students from the University of Saskatchewan were disgruntled about how far they would have to travel to test their skills in wilderness medicine, so they decided to bring the race to the prairies.
The first Medical Wilderness Adventure Race (MedWAR) in western Canada took place at Buffalo Pound on May 25, making it the second location in Canada to host the event — until now, the race had only been in Ontario and across the United States.
The race took about four hours to complete, taking the teams through three legs that tested different skills: the first section was mountain biking through the state-of-the-art course, followed by canoeing down Buffalo Pound Lake, and finishing with a running section mixed with orienteering and mock medical emergencies.
“We all had an amazing day out there,” said organizer Emilie Wellman. “We're amazed by how well our participants are able to just crush our course.”
There were four medical simulations set up for teams to work through, each with a judge and simulated patient. Wellman and the other organizers — Stéphanie Beckett, Jordan Plosker, Averi Harrison — designed each scenario, with advice from mentors at the Dilawri Simulation Centre and physician Dr. Kish Lyster.
“The Sim Centre brought out really fun mannequins and really fun things, to make it as realistic as possible,” said Wellman. “This year, we had somebody with a pneumothorax, so they had to decompress it with a needle and then they had to make their own chest tube, and it was incredibly realistic.”
Three teams and a ton of volunteers spent their afternoon at Buffalo Pound, testing their limits both physically and mentally. (supplied, photo credit: Bob Bellamy)There’s no skill requirement, Wellman insisted — it is for anyone who wants to test their wilderness skills in a low-risk situation, to see how they do. Of course, it helps to be in good shape and have some basic medical knowledge.
“You don't need to be some ultra marathon runner who has been practising wilderness medicine for the last 30 years,” said Wellman. “The [medical] scenarios we created are at a level where people from all walks could attempt them.”
It's a chance to get used to medical emergencies like these before they happen, but also a chance to meet like-minded people and trade some knowledge.
“You get to chat with other medical professionals, and kind of compare and see what other people are doing and maybe what they have in their backpacks, or what they're biking around with or things like that,” said Wellman.
Wellman is still in recovery mode, but is already looking forward to planning the challenge again next summer. MedWAR Saskatchewan will be back in 2020, and in the meantime, interested sponsors and competitors can keep updated on their Facebook page.
