With Governors Ball 2018 kicking off on Friday, summer music festival season in New York City is so close we can almost taste it.
While you may be excited to blow off some steam with tens of thousands of your new closest friends and see headliners like Jack White, Travis Scott and Eminem, for Alex Pollak and his team from Paradocs Worldwide, Inc., it’s just another day at the office, er, tent.
Paradocs offers on-site medical services for events like music festivals, TV and movie sets, marathons, fashion shows and more across the globe — something many of us likely never even think about until we need them.
“As opposed to transporting people to the hospital, we have doctors and everything you’d find in an emergency room, so we can treat most of the patients on-site,” Pollak told Metro.
The longtime EMT and 9/11 first responder founded Paradocs after working past events with other medical service providers and seeing that dozens of attendees were being transported to local hospitals instead of being treated at the venues, which means they now could face large medical bills.
“We see typically 1 percent of the audience, and that ranges from anything from a small cut or a blister to serious call, and out of that we transport less than 1 percent to the hospital,” Pollak said. “Everything is paid for by the promoters — no one gets a bill when they come into our tent to be treated.”
You better believe Paradocs and its more than 2,000 employees, 150 of which are usually on hand for any given event, have seen it all, from those blisters and cuts to dehydration, anxiety attacks and cardiac conditions.
“We get a lot of heat-related injuries, especially outdoors in the summer months. People drink alcohol and take … stuff,” Pollak said with a laugh.
Of course, we asked Pollak what were the, how do we say, more unusual, maladies that have walked into a Paradocs’ tent, but there was nothing he could go on the record with (thanks, HIPAA).
When it came to his favorite event he’s worked so far, however, he was an open book: “Probably the Victoria’s Secret show, if I’m being honest.”
What to know if you need medical help at a music festival
Alex Pollak, founder and CEO of Paradocs Worldwide, Inc., offers these tips to think about if you need medical help at an event like a summer music festival:
• Fear not
“Don’t be scared of us. We don’t kick people out, and we typically let them back in when they’re done with us.”
• Know where the medical tents are
“Twelve hours down the line when you need medical, it’s a little bit harder because your brain’s not in the same headspace.”
• Be honest
“Be open with us. We’re there to help, and we love when you come to us, and we don’t have to get you.”
• Drink lots of water
“Especially with alcohol. Beer is not going to hydrate you. Have one glass of alcohol, one glass of water, but also look for electrolytes.”
• Buddy up
“We get so many people looking for their friends, and their phone’s dead. A lot of people don’t even know their friend’s numbers — or even their parents’ — because it’s programmed in their phone, so have a meeting spot.”
