Real, real, real
At work we had a ‘big old disaster drill’ at a local nursing home. It was actually a lot of fun (which was surprising to me). They had planned for an unreasonable amount of things to be going on at once, including but not limited to: a chlorine spill, an apartment fire, a terrorist threat, a tornado, an overturned canoe in a lake that no one is allowed to boat in, another fire, people lost in the woods, an earthquake, a bus accident full of children and elderly people, a hurricane, and a collapsed building.
We were summoned to the 4th floor of an assisted living facility to assess some fake patients. Firemen were all around, running patients up and down the stairs. The event coordinators had actually convinced a large number of jolly elderly people to participate in the drill as victims. Everyone I encountered seemed generally bemused about what was going on and were all fun to talk to. All of the victims had cards around their necks stating their demographics and injuries. One lady asked me if she was going to get to go to the hospital. I looked at her tag and said “Sadly, no, it appears that you’ve been crushed by a dresser and you have no blood pressure. But this also says you’re 31 years old, so that’s something.” She laughed and happily played dead.
The elderly victims made it more realistic, but this meant that many of them actually couldn’t get down the stairs unassisted, leaving the firefighters to carry them down four flights.
So we got upstairs, donning our high-vis vests, laden with equipment we didn’t plan on actually using when I literally ran into a young firefighter sagging against a wall, pale as a sheet of paper, and breathing hard. One of his partners also realized he wasn’t doing so well and we both started stripping his SCBA and turn-out gear off of him.
Clearly dehydrated and overheated we let him sit for a few minutes. I gave him the usual challenge; if he could stand up unassisted, then I would let him refuse transport. So we tried him out and, well, off we went to the hospital. I was thrilled to have something real to do. The hospital was in full on disaster mode and I spent minutes explaining to everyone “This is a real patient, this is a real patient, this is a real patient.” Really? Yes!
By the time I got back, most of the fake patients had been transported so I got my free lunch and headed back to normal operations.
So by saying it was “fun” I really mean that I had a good time taking care of my one real patient, missing out on most of the silliness, and watching everyone else freak out.
We were summoned to the 4th floor of an assisted living facility to assess some fake patients. Firemen were all around, running patients up and down the stairs. The event coordinators had actually convinced a large number of jolly elderly people to participate in the drill as victims. Everyone I encountered seemed generally bemused about what was going on and were all fun to talk to. All of the victims had cards around their necks stating their demographics and injuries. One lady asked me if she was going to get to go to the hospital. I looked at her tag and said “Sadly, no, it appears that you’ve been crushed by a dresser and you have no blood pressure. But this also says you’re 31 years old, so that’s something.” She laughed and happily played dead.
The elderly victims made it more realistic, but this meant that many of them actually couldn’t get down the stairs unassisted, leaving the firefighters to carry them down four flights.
So we got upstairs, donning our high-vis vests, laden with equipment we didn’t plan on actually using when I literally ran into a young firefighter sagging against a wall, pale as a sheet of paper, and breathing hard. One of his partners also realized he wasn’t doing so well and we both started stripping his SCBA and turn-out gear off of him.
Clearly dehydrated and overheated we let him sit for a few minutes. I gave him the usual challenge; if he could stand up unassisted, then I would let him refuse transport. So we tried him out and, well, off we went to the hospital. I was thrilled to have something real to do. The hospital was in full on disaster mode and I spent minutes explaining to everyone “This is a real patient, this is a real patient, this is a real patient.” Really? Yes!
By the time I got back, most of the fake patients had been transported so I got my free lunch and headed back to normal operations.
So by saying it was “fun” I really mean that I had a good time taking care of my one real patient, missing out on most of the silliness, and watching everyone else freak out.
Comments
I wasn't involved that day, but I had the radio on and was listening while at work. About 2 hours into the drill one of the hospital staff advises there's been a chemical spill. It's investigated, and suddenly, the one hospital for the entire county is the scene of a full-on hazmat incident.
I was pretty impressed with the speed at which everyone went from MCI mode, dropping mock patients off at the hospital, to hazmat evac mode, getting everyone out quickly. Guess it speaks well to training and practice.