INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) - The infield care center sees two types of patients on race day. They treat spectators for things like heat exhaustion and they treat professional athletes involved in high speed crashes.
"This is like nothing we've ever done before," Alayna Prest, an IU School of Medicine Resident, said.
Seven IU School of Medicine emergency medical residents are calling the Emergency Medical Center at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway home for the month. It's part of a motorsports medicine program.
"It gives them some experience in treating people who are injured as a result of ultra high speed crashes," Dr. Geoffrey Billows, the IMS Director of Medical Services, says. "There is nowhere else, I think, where you can see crashes with the level of g-forces that you see here."
"We also have some components of mass gathering," says Ashley Satorius, another IU School of Medicine Resident. "We'll be here the next two days during the big concert series so we help take care of the spectators and the crowds as well."
"Let's be real, IMS is the epitome of mass gathering," Prest says.
On race day, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway becomes the second largest city in Indiana, and the infield care center is, essentially, the doctors office.
They expect to see between 600 to 800 patients.
"It's this really unique opportunity because in the hospital you have all these resources and we get to take care of these patients when they come to us," Prest says. "Basically, we are bringing medicine to them."