ANZCA Bulletin June 2011 - Australian and New Zealand College of ...

High octane
medicine
From the Grand Prix racetrack to
assisting in disaster relief efforts,
Dr Roger Capps has participated
in many diverse and highpressured
medical interventions.
He tells Meaghan Shaw what
inspires him to get involved.
It’s any rev head’s dream – riding in the
medical chase car during the Formula
One Grand Prix at speeds of close to 200
kilometres an hour, following the drivers
on their first lap when the likelihood
of accidents is high as they jostle for
position.
Lining up in the chase car behind
the grid, ready to offer resuscitation
assistance to injured drivers, Royal
Adelaide Hospital anaesthetist Dr
Roger Capps, with characteristic
understatement, admits his pulse rate
“probably went up a little bit”, watching
the lights count down: Ready, set, go.
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ANZCA Bulletin June 2011
“It’s quite a buzz actually,” he says.
“The reality is I’m a big kid and it’s time
I grew up.”
For much of the past 25 years, Dr
Capps has been involved in motorsports
as a medical officer, either being driven
in the chase car at the Adelaide and
Melbourne grands prix, or acting as
chief medical officer for the Clipsal 500
Adelaide, before retiring this year.
It’s been a rewarding experience for
Dr Capps that has combined excitement,
the potential for high level medical
intervention, snap decision-making and
the satisfaction of working in a team.
It has also complemented Dr Capps’
other medical intervention work as
part of retrieval rosters, disaster relief
efforts and medical reserve work for the
Royal Australian Air Force in war-torn
countries.
But what drives him to get involved
in such activities Dr Capps laughs at
the suggestion he’s a thrill-seeker before
admitting, “Perhaps so”.
He estimates he has been involved
in “dozens” of medical interventions in
motorsports, including the high-profile
crashes of Finnish world champion Mika
Hakkinen, British driver Martin Brundle
and V8 Supercar driver Ashley Cooper,
all of which he remembers for different
reasons.
Hakkinen was critically injured
during the 1995 Australian Grand
Prix in Adelaide, and was saved by an
impressive team effort that involved an
emergency tracheostomy performed
track-side. Dr Capps’ role was to insert a
femoral line for intravenous access and
assist with intubation.
As Hakkinen was taken to hospital,
the work of the Adelaide team was
praised by legendary UK neurosurgeon
and head of the Formula One on-track
medical team, Professor Sid Watkins,
who told Dr Capps that Adelaide would
serve as the benchmark for medical
intervention.
“To get that sort of report from
someone of that standard, I thought was
pretty good,” Dr Capps says with pride.