JellyBean 046 with Ruth Bird

A sports mad yet sensible woman. It’s @DrRuthBird from #SMACCdub
(She turned down free beer, paid for by @precordialthump, in order to talk to me and thus talk to you.)

Sport! More sport! The Rio Olympics are in full flow. The European Football season has started. That means thousands and thousands of people all crammed into stadia all over England, Spain, Italy and so on. (Mostly men & not necessarily the fittest blokes.)

If you put thousands and thousands of people in a big concrete bowl and get them stressed things happen. Ruth Bird has been the Crowd Doctor at Fulham FC for 4 years. She is not responsible for the team and thus not even slightly responsible for them getting relegated in 2014. So whats that like? And how? And why?

Turns out this sport mad doctor has a far from mad plan. She has been building her contacts and experience in the Pre-Hospital Medicine world. Ruth has branched out into the motorsport world. She has been mixing business and pleasure by finding ways to use her skills in many different poorly controlled environments. It is all much more sensible than you might think.

Ruth gives us a bit of an insight into the fun things she does and the very serious things that she is hoping to do. Ruth is applying for one of the very few UK Pre-Hospital Emergency Medicine Specialty Training Posts in one of the many great Aeromedical/Pre-Hospital Medical Services across the country traditionally known as the United Kingdom.

Coming to a major event near you and possibly by helicopter; it’s a bird, it’s a plane… it’s… no I was right the first time its a Bird. Dr Ruth Bird.

P.S. The on field doctor that I refer to in this Jellybean is Eva Carneiro (Sorry for my mispronunciation of her Portuguese name.) There’s another interesting woman in a male dominated world. Dr Carneiro was abused by Jose Mourinho for doing her job at Chelsea Football Club and the rest is history. Eventually Jose climbed down. Eva didn’t. There is a lot to that case but here’s my take home message; don’t behave like a sexist pig and you won’t have to apologise and hand over millions of ponds/euros/dollars.

P.P.S. Anyone who remembers the infamous Diastole and Systole medical student houses out behind the old Royal London Hospital please feel free to share any stories. (Perhaps change the names to protect the innocent?) (If there were any innocents?)