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The Bahamas Basketball Federation (BBF) and the Spectrum Pain Management Sports Medicine Clinic have announced a partnership to assist national team players with medical attention in the future.
The BBF and the clinic made the announcement at a recent press conference at the Kendal G.L. Isaacs Gymnasium.
According to BBF President Mario Bowleg, the clinic will be responsible for assisting the federation in taking care of national team players.
Clinic anesthesiologist and pain physician Dr. Sy Pierre said the clinic has been looking for an organization to partner with for the past two years. He said the service is free of charge to the federation.
“Eugene Horton (BBF vice president) and I had a discussion and what my organization has decided to do is to provide free-of-charge service for the things that we can perform for the athletes. For example, if a player had a torn ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) or meniscus tear that was not serious or did not require surgery, there may [be] some interventional procedures where we can assist the healing and enhance healing over a short period of time and get them back without surgery. That is what interventional pain management and sports medicine is about at this point. Obviously, if they require surgery, this is something that we don’t do or maybe it will be included in the future,” said Pierre.
The plan is to have a team from the clinic travel with the team to tournaments to provide specialist care instead of using physicians at the destination.
“If the team needs medical care or some type of specialist care for their injuries abroad, we will be there. We can provide that using ultrasound technology to diagnose and make sure they are fine,” Pierre said. “In speaking to the leaders of this organization, we don’t realize it but if you are in a place where English is not the first language and a player is injured, it may be difficult for him or her to explain to the physician what is going on. I think this is a good thing for them. It is a great thing for us, the federation and The Bahamas. We are so happy to be a part of this.”
Bowleg noted that as the federation progresses to the next level, they believe that how they treat the athletes on and off the court is important in the athletes’ execution of their national team duties, playing at the highest level possible.
Injury in sports is a reality, and with the clinic onboard, national team players can now get specialist treatment if they get injured representing The Bahamas, said Bowleg.