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Coffee County Emergency Management Committee detailed at its recent meeting some of the roles that area first responders play during the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival.

Among those medical services, while a big item for the festival, is handled mostly by contracted service providers rather than by a county agency.

By and large National Events Services handles medical subcontracts medical, and uses Coffee County EMS to provide transportation from the grounds.

Coffee County EMS Chief Michael Bonner said that National Events Services handles everything inside the fence. They provide golf carts, medial tents and physicians. Coffee County Ambulances and personnel will remain outside. 

If some goes down inside the festival, Bonner explained at the meeting, “A golf cart is dispatched. The patient is transported to either the CenterRoo medical tent or the main medical tent. If that physician feels like that person needs to go further, they get hold of us and that person is transported off site.”    

Bonner said in the event of a major catastrophe the procedure will remain the same.

Coffee County regularly provides two ambulances; they are staged by main medical at converted house on Kimberly Lane.

Transports from the site to area hospitals have decreased from 150 in the early years to about 25 last year.

Cardiac events, broken bones are some of the reasons to be transported, while the majority of cases will be treated onsite.

Longtime Bonnaroo contract physician Dr. Jay Trussler said that four doctors cover the shifts. Trussler said that the medical tents are setup to be an independent emergency room.

The two patients he ordered for transport recently was a vehicle versus pedestrian accident and a broken ankle.  

Trussler takes the “scary” late-night shifts. He said that the weather plays an important role in number of patients. Often festivalgoers will drink plenty of water, but that water flushes their electrolytes which can cause When problems occur, you may experience confusion and irritability, fatigue, headaches, muscle cramps and even muscle spasms or weakness.

Partying leads to a lot of pharmacological patients, but often it’s not the over doing recreational drugs that causes problems, but when festivalgoers fail to take their prescribed meds.

“People who are bipolar or manic at their baseline and not medicated … and are taking the exact opposite – instead of taking things to keep them calm, they’re taking things … to heighten their concert experience,” he said.