The arrangements for caring for the health of the athletes included a Hospital Unit in the center of the Olympic Village, where X-ray, laboratory, physiotherapy and emergency service, with physicians and nurses on duty, was available every hour of the day or night. The hospital staff was comprised of a Superintendent who was also Day Surgeon, a Night Surgeon, and an Assistant Day Surgeon, and day and night male nurses who were also qualified physiotherapists.
The Olympic Village Hospital was constructed particularly with a view to caring for the minor strains, sprains and abrasions which come to all athletes, but was also used for slight temporary illnesses and for purposes of observation. By providing immediate treatment or diagnosis in close proximity to the living quarters of the athletes, much time was saved and a real service rendered to the athletes. Although abrasions, furunculosis, blisters, minor infections, sprains and strains composed the majority of the conditions treated, undoubtedly the immediate care which these minor ailments received prevented in some cases the development of more serious ailments and contributed largely to the splendid health and excellent showing of the athletes of the Xth Olympiad. Any severe injury was cared for in a local hospital, and in all, eighteen cases of a more serious nature were handled in this way.
The policy of the Village Hospital was to give the athletes, insofar as practicable, the type of treatment to which they were accustomed in their respective countries, and the type of management of their cases which they had found most beneficial in any previous athletic injuries.
The
Olympic Village Hospital was in operation from July 5 to August 21, 1932. For this six-weeks period, the statistics are as follows:
Total number of individuals treated — 473
Total number of treatments — 1,862
Average treatments per day — 40
Physiotherapy treatments — 540
X-rays — 22
Cases referred to other hospitals — 18
When the Hospital was erected there was speculation on the part of athletes and coaches as to the amount of use which would be made of it. The feeling was that a highly trained, healthy group of athletes would have little need of hospital service. It was found, however, that the Hospital was in constant use, and the large number of treatments given, with the great variety of cases treated, indicate conclusively that a field hospital such as the one erected in the Olympic Village was necessary.
Hospitalization
The California Hospital, a local institution, was selected for the more serious cases of illness or injury. It was desirable, so far as practicable, that all athletes requiring hospitalization treatment be in one institution. The California Hospital extended athletes special rates for hospital and laboratory service, and specialists or foreign advisors were called in as needed, either at the discretion of the physician in charge or on request of the patient. Special efforts were made to give the most efficient attention and every facility of modern science was utilized to insure the best possible care of sick or injured visiting athletes. Day and night special nurses were called when necessary, and laboratory and diagnostic procedures and physiotherapy were provided where indicated.
Sanitation
One of the most important medical factors contributing to the success of the Games of the Xth Olympiad was the arrangements for sanitation.
With two thousand world athletes, their managers, trainers, coaches, and other attaches, congregating in one community, with the vast throngs of spectators, extraordinary precautions were necessary to prevent the possibility of contagion. The problem was a large one. Besides the Olympic Village, the Olympic activities involved seven stadiums, sixteen special training fields, including six athletic clubs, eight high schools, and the University of Southern California and Los Angeles Junior College, with their shower and locker facilities. These centers of activity were scattered from Pasadena in the north to Long Beach in the south, and from Jefferson High School in the east to Santa Monica and the Riviera in the west.
To facilitate the sanitary inspection of the Olympic Village, the Olympic Village Director was appointed a special deputy health officer.
In addition to the usual sanitary precautions, special attention was given to the prevention of epidermophytosis or "athlete's foot". By permission of the Los Angeles County Health Officer, the County Chemist made chemical tests of several commercial preparations to determine which one best filled the requirements of prompt fungicidal efficiency, non-irritant properties, simplicity of handling and low relative cost. As a result of these tests, a preparation of calcium hypochlorite containing sixty-five percent of available chlorine was selected.
When mixed with water in proper proportions, it furnished a one percent hypochlorite solution which bacteriological tests proved to be effective in killing the spores of the most resistant ringworm organisms in fifteen seconds. Rubber foot tubs, two feet in diameter and four inches deep, with a capacity of eight gallons, were filled with the solution and placed wherever showers were used by the athletes, and attendants were instructed to prepare a fresh solution every morning.
Signs over the tubs directed the athletes to step into the solution before and after taking showers. As a result of these measures, very few cases of "athlete's foot" were reported.
The sewage system in the Olympic Village was of the cesspool type. The toilets were of the dry chemical type. The chief problem here was the elimination of odors. Many chemicals were tried without complete success. To the Director of the Village belongs the credit for adopting the use of crude oil, which was almost one hundred percent successful in its operation.
Wrestling mats used in training and exhibitions were protected by freshly laundered covers, which were changed frequently. Garbage cans were placed in fly-proof, screened inclosures. All dining rooms and kitchens were given daily inspections by the Olympic Village management.
Dental Service
In arranging for the medical care of the athletes, the Medical Director felt that great emphasis should be placed on the importance of dental hygiene, and a Dental Section was organized. The Los Angeles Board of Education granted permission to station one of its traveling "Healthmobiles" in the Village, equipped with a modern dental office, complete in every respect. Fifty-seven local dentists volunteered to serve for a day or more each, but it was not necessary to call on so many, and twenty-seven working in shifts furnished ample service. Thus a free emergency dental service was provided for the Olympic athletes in close proximity to their living quarters.
Toothaches, decayed teeth, exposed nerves, and other dental troubles which might impair the efficiency of the athlete on the eve of contest, received immediate and competent attention.
Red Cross Service
A vital part in the medical arrangements for the Games was the provision of first aid service by the American Red Cross Society. The Chairman of the Los Angeles Chapter undertook the responsibility of organizing the first aid work and securing the corps of nurses necessary.
The gathering of equipment was begun considerably before the first stations were opened. Thirty-three first aid kits were borrowed from local industrial concerns, to supplement the Red Cross supply. Thirty-five stretchers were borrowed from the United States Army. One hundred cots and two hundred blankets were procured, and other material, such as Red Cross flags, was assembled. Signs, assignment sheets and other required forms were printed or mimeographed. Some forty local industries and Los Angeles city departments, in which the Red Cross Society had conducted first aid courses, were contacted regarding the possibility of some of their trained men serving as first aid men on their off time. All of these groups responded freely and a call list of four hundred and thirty certified men was made up. A special office was opened, telephone installed, and detailed charts of the assignments to be filled were prepared. Four full-time volunteers were appointed as assistants, in charge of training center and event personnel and training center and event equipment, respectively. Bulletins were sent to all of the available men, asking them to report on specified days for detailed assignments.
On July 18, two full weeks before the opening of the Games, the first station was opened at the training field at Manual Arts High School. Every day thereafter showed the installation of two or three stations, until July 30, when fourteen stations were installed for the Opening Day's ceremonies.
In addition to the regular stations which were maintained during the entire sixteen day period, for all events at the stadiums , first aid stations were installed and operated at the training fields prior to the main event. Special stations were also maintained in connection with the Marathon, Equestrian Events, Road Cycling Race, Cross Country Run, and 50,000 Metre Walk, each of which required special equipment and personnel. The Los Angeles City Life Guard Service and the Los Angeles County Life Guard Service furnished emergency cars, and the First National Motion Picture Studios furnished a mobile first aid unit for these events.
Four hundred and thirty first aid operators and one hundred and twenty Red Cross nurses volunteered their services. In all, sixty-five different stations were installed, with a maximum of thirty-three nurses and eighty-two men on duty simultaneously. Thirty-five first aid stations were in operation at one time.
Five hundred and eighty-nine cases were reported treated, fifty-five of these being athletes. Twenty-six cases required ambulance transportation.
Field Surgeons
The care of the athletes during events at all of the various stadiums was placed in the hands of forty official field surgeons.
These were primarily responsible not alone for the athletes but also to co-operate with the American Red Cross Staff in caring for the public.
The field surgeons were a carefully selected group of men who had had practical experience in caring for athletic injuries in addition to possessing a knowledge of orthopedics, and of industrial and accident surgery.
Prior to the Games, several meetings of the field surgeons were held. Athletic injuries and their treatments were discussed at length, also the medical supervision of such special events as the Marathon and Road Race Cycling. First aid supplies and equipment to be carried by the field surgeons were considered and standardized so as to be prepared for every emergency.
Olympic Stadium
The Chief Surgeon of the Los Angeles City Receiving Hospital was the field surgeon in charge at Olympic Stadium. He was assisted by four other field surgeons, two being assigned for care of the public and two for care of the athletes. The Stadium was provided with nine first aid stations for the public, strategically placed near the main exits. First aid stations for the athletes were located in the men's and women's dressing rooms. An ambulance was posted at the rear of the dressing room building, with a wheel stretcher and attendants on the field near the athletes' entrance.
First aid operators were stationed at the inside entrance of passageways, each being responsible for a certain section of the grand stand. Boy Scouts carried messages from the nurses in the first aid stations to the doctors stationed at specified locations.
Fourteen minor injuries to athletes were treated in the Stadium and two cases of exhaustion. During the course of the Games, over five hundred public cases were given treatment in the first aid stations at the Stadium.
Some two years before the Games the Organizing Committee, realizing the great importance of an adequate medical service, appointed Sven Lokrantz, M.D., Medical Director of the Games. Dr. Lokrantz, internationally known in the field of school health and corrective physical education and Director of that department of the Los Angeles City schools, was, at the time of his appointment, President of the American Association of School Phvsicians and President of the Southern California Public Health Association.
The Director of Music immediately issued a call to vocal ensembles throughout Southern California for volunteers to sing in the Chorus. There was a tremendous response, and a Chorus of 1200 voices was selected and regular rehearsals held for many months in advance of the Games.
A combined band of 200 pieces or more was maintained at Olympic Stadium during all events. On the occasion of the Demonstration Football Game, a chorus of 1,200 voices, a massed band of 1,000 pieces, and a drum and bugle corps of 800 pieces, making a total musical ensemble of 3,000, provided music and marching formations typical of the occasion . Altogether, thirty bands, comprising 1,500 musicians, and 1,200 members of the chorus and 800 members of the drum and bugle corps, a total personnel of 3,500, took part in the musical programme of the Games. All musicians with the exception of the members of the Official Band volunteered their services.
In preparing to produce the Daily Programmes, it was decided to adopt a magazine style, and to carry authentic and interesting information concerning the present and past Games in addition to the usual time tables and entry lists. In this way the spectators would understand and enjoy the Games to the fullest extent. The price of each programme was fixed at the nominal figure of ten cents, which. guaranteed a large circulation.