Monthly Archives: April 2007

My heart and prayers go out to all involved in the tragic events at Virginia Tech yesterday.

Many will be discussing the shooter, campus security, and the official response to this incident for days to come. But one thing that I’ve not heard covered in the news is the fantastic response of the EMS and medical community.

I have driven through that area of Virginia many times as a college and then a medical student returning home to Pennsylvania. It’s beautiful country, but, much like my home town, its rural location can often make it vulnerable to the weather. And, if you’re a surgeon or ER doc working in a hospital in an area like Roanoke, you pay particular attention to the weather.

Weather can turn what usually would be a short helicopter ride to transport a critically injured patient to a trauma center into a prolonged ambulance ride, or in the case of an unstable patient, trap them in your community hospital where you try your best with limited resources to give them the best care possible.

This is what the hospitals surrounding Blacksburg were facing yesterday. Gusting winds, snow flurries, and a late season storm had downed the helicopters. All they had were ground transportation.

I can only imagine the frustration the EMS guys must have felt. Trapped, waiting in their ambulances until the scene was secured.

You need to understand that the first question EMT students must ask in any training scenario—and the only question guaranteed to fail someone if they forget to ask it—is: Is the scene safe?

Medics want to go in, they’re trained to run into danger while everyone else is escaping to safety. But, they also realize that adding themselves to the list of victims does no one any good—least of all the people they’re there to save.

And so, in a situation like yesterday, they’re forced to wait until the scene is secured by the tactical operators: police, ATF, SWAT—all those men with guns and bullet proof vests.

Yet, despite all these limitations, the men and women of the EMS squads, the physicians and nurses in the hospitals suddenly deluged with casualties, they all performed admirably and with little accolade as the media and public’s attention is concentrated elsewhere.

I’d like to acknowledge them for a job well done in the face of what is an over-whelming tragedy for this community. Thank you and God Bless you all!