RAGBRAI 2018: UI children’s hospital team shares bicycle safety message

For five years, the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital has been sharing its message about bicycle safety across the state during the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI), along with delivering medical care for cyclists along the route.

Last year, the team of children’s hospital faculty, staff, and friends got an early start on that mission.

On July 21, 2017, 13 members of the team were aboard an RV heading to Orange City, Iowa, for the start of the ride when they came upon a motorcycle crash on Highway 20 near Dike. With no other medical professionals on the scene, the team RV pulled over and began providing care to the victim.

“He had kind of skidded off to the side of the road and had been thrown into the road,” says Dr. Jill Endres, a family medicine physician at UI Hospitals and Clinics. “He was not wearing a helmet. We assessed his injuries and made sure he was safe.”

The team stabilized the victim until an ambulance arrived and paramedics took over. While on the scene, they spoke with the victim’s nephew about the importance of wearing a helmet—a message they also promote along the RAGBRAI route.

“His nephew said he didn’t wear helmets usually, but would from now on, which was a good thing to see,” Endres says.

Pam Hoogerwerf, community outreach and injury prevention manager at the UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital, says that while there was never an expectation the team would assist people on the drive to the RAGBRAI start, the team’s passion for medical care took over.

“Even though they were focused on the week ahead, they turned to their profession and did what they needed to do,” Hoogerwerf says.

Hoogerwerf says the children’s hospital has been bringing a safety message to RAGBRAI riders since 2014. That first year, a team attended the expo held before the start of the ride to talk to riders and provide information about bicycle safety, but did not ride the route. On the way back to Iowa City, they decided to put together a team of riders to promote their safety message along the route the next year, not just at the beginning.

“It dawned on us, ‘Wow, many of us are cycling enthusiasts anyway—why aren’t we trying to take this bike safety message along the RAGBRAI route?’” Hoogerwerf says.

So in 2015, about 30 UI faculty members, staff, and friends delivered their safety message via bicycle directly to thousands of fellow riders.

“I think a lot of people are unaware of the improvement in safety that is incurred by wearing a helmet,” Endres says. “There are a lot of people across the state who don’t wear helmets or don’t have helmets to wear. Education can go a long way to fix that problem.”

Endres says the team often is on the lookout for children in small towns. The children are given stickers and gifts while the medical professionals talk with them about bicycle safety and the importance of wearing helmets.

Hoogerwerf says providing medical care to injured bicyclists has become a secondary mission for the team. While the team members don’t carry a lot of medical supplies with them, they are able to provide some basic medical assistance until other medical professionals can arrive.

“Along the route, there wasn’t a day that our team members weren’t the first on the scene after a bike crash,” Hoogerwerf says. “We have this new-found mission and reputation that we’re another line of medical support. We’re just on bicycles.”

In recognition of their mission to promote bicycle safety and provide medical care along the route, the children’s hospital team was awarded the RAGBRAI Rider Cup at this year’s route announcement party in January.

While the team appreciates the recognition, just getting out on bicycles and spreading their safety message has been rewarding, as well, Hoogerwerf says.

“We consider our community the entire state of Iowa,” she says.