Cape Town - The Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) has released the medical statistics for the 91st Comrades Marathon, held on Sunday.
CMA Medical Convener, Jeremy Boulter, says that 425 runners were treated at the Comrades medical tent, and that about 250 at the St Johns Tent. Two patients were treated for hyperthermia in the medical tent.
Netcare’s St Augustines Hospital in Durban treated 65 patients, 9 of whom were admitted to the ICU.
The ICU patients were essentially admitted as cardiac patients. There were no heart attacks. People who had some cardiac related symptoms were admitted for further observation and investigation.
The remaining athletes were mainly treated for dehydration, apart from a few other minor problems; and were discharged.
Netcare’s Umhlanga Hospital in Durban North treated 9 runners, 4 of whom were in ICU. The rest were mainly dehydrated and have since been discharged.
"We had a good day in the medical tent," said Boulter.
"We were busier than usual but experienced no major problems.
"Everything went smoothly. The medical tent itself was never overloaded, and we coped extremely well. We treated about 3% of the field in both tents, which is about as expected."