Every year Coachella Fest brings in the party and every year there are those who party too hard.
“They tend to maybe have too much fun, maybe on alcohol or drugs,” says Emergency Department Charge Nurse Rosa Sanchez of JFK Memorial Hospital.
The John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Indio takes care of the majority of Coachella Festival emergencies. Sanchez says, “so we do have more staff, in terms of providers we do staff up for that as well.”
Dr. Andrew Kassinove of JFK says during this year’s Coachella weekend one, the JFK emergency room saw 100 festival related walk in patients and 28 ambulance trips. The most common trip to the emergency room is from heat exhaustion.
“If you’re coming in from out of town or out of the country where it’s cold, and you come in and stand in the heat all day, that’s going to have a toll on your body,” says Dr. Kassinove. He says drugs and alcohol only make those symptoms worse.
Another common problem the JFK medical center see’s is Coachella victims coming into the emergency room in a coma, from the date rape drug. Dr. Kassinove says, “often times we’ll have to put a breathing tube down them, and support them for several hours until the drug wears off.”
Nurse Sanchez says it’s important to watch what you take, “please don’t take anything that is going to make you so altered you can’t remember, or you’re not sure of your own actions.”
Dr. Kassinove says to stay hydrated and if you have asthma, bring an inhaler. “Be aware that you could see your asthma attack there,” he says.
While they’re ready to help festival goers, they want you to stay out of the emergency room.
