Dr. Charschan’s day as medical staff for the Nitro Circus at the Cure Insurance Arena in Trenton.

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As many of our patients know, I have been involved in chiropractic sports medicine since 1992. Since the pandemic, I had not had an opportunity to perform live events until my Facebook feed offered me the opportunity to work at Nitro Circus in the Trenton Cure Insurance Arena on November 24th.

Originally I thought this was an actual circus and told my wife I volunteered to be medical staff that day. I later looked at their website and realized this was a BMX and FMX (motorized and non-motorized bikes and vehicles) event.

The event medical was run by WMI Global, a company that does this for many events internationally. I had to be credentialed with them and then was given all their protocols and expectations for us at the event.

I arrived at Cure Arena at 9 am to set up the medical area and communicate with the staff on and off-site. I met George Saggal DC,CCSP, the other chiropractic provider at the event who had worked a similar event in Connecticut a few days prior. He walked me through the day’s protocols and taught us how to coordinate the entire event. We set up the medical area next to where the athletes were, set up EMS, and spent the day being available to athletes with prior injuries or ongoing problems.

We were given radios with earpieces that all staff had to communicate throughout the day. They gave us staff passes that allowed us to move freely throughout the arena.

Finally, after the initial setup, we were present during practices as our job was to be the first on and second on providers in case an injury occurred. EMS was also stationed next to us.

During practice, the stunts were adjusted for safety and the athletes gave their input on the stunts. Many of these athletes were olympic level. This was one stop on their national tour that ends in December which had multiple sponsors such as Monster and Busch.

George and I worked well as a team. I treated many of the athletes and he handled many of the behind-the-scenes details to ensure things were safe and medical staff were well coordinated.

Our long day ended around 10 pm when we packed up the gear and went home. Your kids would love this event and you would too.

Many of the staff and athletes thanked us for our hard work and for helping them with the many physical issues they experience doing these extreme sports.

I hope you enjoyed this introduction to Nitro Circus. As a medical provider, I love the challenges and I had the best seats in the house :).