I'm not trying to get into some sort of pissing match with anyone here, but I highly doubt that administration of sedatives is part of standard protocol. I quite agree with Nickel about back boards and neck collars, those typically are precautionary measures that are taken, because outside of strapping them onto the patient, they don't really present much in the way of risk, relative to excellent precautionary benefit offered by such devices. Sedatives from my understanding and my own experience, are typically avoided as much as possible.gilgen wrote:nickel. what i am trying to say that in F1, there is a protocol that has to be followed, and even this was tightened up after jules's accident. personally, i find nothing unusual in alonso's treatment at the track.
There are of course less potent sedatives that can be used, that might not cause a patient to outright fall to sleep, and according to a Wikipedia article, are sometimes used for invasive procedures like MRI. I don't know if invasive is the correct word to describe MRI, since its not surgery, but they are nasty. I'm sure Nickel can chime in here, its dark, claustrophobic, it takes like 20 minutes, and its noisy as all ---, in fact I described it to the technician as sounding like a 'god damned warzone' which he said was a good description. I'm not sure potent sedatives are necessary for that though, surely the mild sedating effect that morphine has would be enough in itself to make it less uncomfortable to get an MRI. But I will say that MRI's are really horrible, its not pleasant being inside them for that long period of time, and its endless noise, I'd be quite happy not to ever have an MRI again.
I personally can't see a reason for medical staff to sedate a patient to the point to unconsciousness, unless from a very serious accident where a patient might be at further risk from not being sedated. I'm not sure that Alonso's accident was in that category. I'm not saying the accident wasn't serious in its own right, or that there was no concussion, but I was always under the impression that concussion is typically reason enough to avoid sedatives.