BY ROBERT HAYNES, B.A., EMT-P, CLASS OF 2017 PRESIDENT
Students were victims and rescuers in the mass-casualty disaster drill.
Physician Assistant
COLLEGE OF HEALTH CARE SCIENCES •61
would be provided delayed transport to an emergency room or an urgent care center.
Captain Doug Higgins of the Lee County Division of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) provided START training and copies of the triage tags used by the local EMS and fire departments. Students also became official MRC volunteers during their tenure in the CHCS Fort Myers Physician Assistant Program so they could be called on should a real large-scale disaster occur in their area.
On October 14, Kirkwood, LeBlanc-Hutchings, and Higgins visited the class to distribute badges and explain the students’ roles as responders or victims. Many of the victims would be local EMS students, because the Lee County Port Authority is interested in feedback from them regarding how the victims are treated by the rescuers.
The majority of the class was designated as victims and assigned to the site of a mock plane crash on the tarmac. The rest of the students were assigned to triage at the rescue and fire station on the airport grounds.
Students arrived at the assembly area early in the morning on the day of the drill at staggered times for moulage application. Makeup experts applied simulated bruises, bleeding lacerations, and even fake imbedded glass fragments using amazing techniques. Students had to wear clothes they were not interested in ever wearing again, as fake blood and simulated injuries, including fabric tears, ruin garments.
The providers arrived a few hours later at the airport fire station, simulating an MRC activation requesting
providers to respond to a real emergency. The walking wounded were transported to the airport fire station, where they were reevaluated by some of the students to ensure they did not deteriorate. Later, victims were transported to local hospitals once the more seriously wounded were removed from the scene. While awaiting transport, or for those who were not hurt, food, drinks, and cots were provided. Airport officials were also present to help reunite victims with their loved ones.
NSU’s participation in the drill went off without a hitch as the volunteers successfully triaged about 160 victims. Some students were even tagged black. They were assigned to fall on the ground and play dead. An air- plane and several school buses were placed on the tarmac to represent aircraft fuselages and increase the event’s realism.
As much fun as it was to wear moulage, students were not allowed to leave the grounds with their wounds to avoid creating a safety incident. Additionally, since the airport remained open during the drill, any real incident that occurred would stop the drill immediately. Conse- quently, the students were given a code word in the event that a real emergency were to occur during the drill.
Local officials will examine the drill results to see where their plans are sufficient and where deficiencies may exist. ■
A student checks a tag displaying vital signs. A student is assessed following
At 9:30 a.m. on September 28, 2015, a phone rang.
“911…What is your emergency?” In a panicked voice, the woman on the other end exclaimed, “The grill blew up and my husband is burned badly. I need help!”
The accident site resembled a scene out of a war zone. The barbeque grill was ripped apart, with chunks of it lying on the ground and spread out in all directions. A portion was even embedded in the side of a tree close
by. Also on the ground was the badly burned body of the caller’s husband lying flat on his back.
His skin, in the front from his face down to just below his knees, was a hideous shade of dark red with black-charred streaks and blotches from the burns he sustained in the accident. His wife could be seen kneeling next to his body with her hands covering her face—emotionally distraught over the accident and the appearance of her husband.
The shriek of an emergency vehicle sounded off from a short distance down the road. As the ambulance came into view, the woman stood and started jumping up and down, waving her arms, and yelling, “Over here! We’re over here! Please hurry! My husband needs medical attention NOW!”
The Saint Johns River State College paramedic students emerged from the ambulance with a stretcher in tow
and immediately started obtaining the man’s vital signs while questioning the woman about what happened. She explained that her husband was getting ready to grill steaks and was bent over the gas grill while trying to light it. The next thing she knew, there was an extremely loud explosion, lots of flames, and then her husband was airborne, landing on his back about 15 to 20 feet from where the grill used to sit.
The emergency crew quickly assessed the patient, loaded him into the ambulance, and headed off to the closest medical facility while alerting the hospital of its impend- ing arrival with the trauma patient. Upon arriving at the hospital, the paramedic students rolled the stretcher through the mock emergency department doors with the man’s wife walking beside it, crying hysterically.