Six Degrees

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I just learned that I actually knew one of the VT victims. Not just him, but his family.

It’s been awhile, and I knew them professionally, but of course my first reaction was pure emotion. My heart goes out to them all—putting faces and voices to the tragedy makes it all the more painful.

My first response was, I should send them something. Then I turned on the TV and saw the morning shows all featuring tributes to the fallen. Interviews with their friends, family, loved ones, acquaintances, neighbors…

And I shuddered. See, I’ve been caught up in a high profile case once, years ago. I know what it’s like to be forced to mourn in public, to share your grief with total strangers.

With our culture’s obsession of right here, right now, instant communication I think we’ve forgotten that some things aren’t just meant to be private, they need to be private.

Yes, one could argue that grief is lightened by sharing. But that is only if the person in mourning chooses to share. Isn’t forced to standing blinking in the spotlight, recounting memories of their loved ones.

Worse, having their way of mourning judged alongside others. As if grief knew rules, had an expiration date, or carefully choreographed steps that we all follow leading us to a defined end where we grieve no more.

Sorry, Dr. Kubler-Ross, but it just ain’t so. Yes, we all share similar emotions, but how we act on those feelings is an individual process that can’t be forced into a checklist: Denial—done, Anger—got it, Bargaining….

We all like to feel part of the story—connected to events that are the center of a media storm. We all like to feel lucky, whew, missed that one. We all like to dissect and play Monday morning quarterback.

Let’s just make sure that our desire to see more of this story, to hear all the little details, isn’t overshadowing the needs of the people who will be living it for the rest of their lives.

A little prayer, kindness and understanding wouldn’t hurt either.

VT: From the First Responders

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From EMS Responder:

BLACKSBURG, Va.– As an advanced EMT with Virginia Tech Rescue Squad, Matthew Lewis knows to expect the unexpected.

And, that’s just what he encountered Monday morning when he walked into the Ambler Johnston dorm room on the VT campus.

“We were called for someone who had fallen out of their loft,” Lewis said. “Instead, we found two patients with gunshot wounds. We started treatment and called for a second unit.”

Both patients, a male and a female, were transported to Montgomery Regional Hospital. Lewis would not say whether or not they were in cardiac arrest.

VT Chief of Police Wendell Flinchum said witnesses told officers they believed the dorm shooting was domestic related. A “person of interest” was located off-campus, and was being interviewed when the second shooting occurred.

At 9:45 a.m., callers to 9-1-1 reported shots being fired in Norris Hall. Officers arrived to find the doors chained from the inside. They forced the doors, and as they reached the second-floor the shooting stopped.

They found the gunman dead inside a classroom where other slain and wounded people were located, Flinchum said.

“It’s the worst I’ve seen in my life,” the chief said, describing the bloody crime scene.

When Virginia Tech Rescue received the call for Norris Hall, it was for “multiple patients with traumatic injuries.”

Realizing they would need assistance, they immediately requested mutual aid from nearby companies. “We had practiced for MCI (mass casualty incidents). We were ready,” said Matt Green, an EMT. “The training paid off today.”

Lt. Matt Johnson established command, and requested Montgomery County respond with its trailer of extra medical supplies such as backboards, straps and collars.

Since the scene was not secure, the ambulances staged away from the scene. Personnel were assigned triage, treatment and transportation duties.

They also had to warn other students about the incident. “People would say they had a class in Norris,” said Lt. Sarah Walker, of Blacksburg Volunteer Rescue Squad. “They hadn’t heard what was going on. There was no panic. Some just didn’t get it when we told them to go home.”

Police officers carried some injured patients to the ambulances, while others walked to the treatment areas.

Some of the victims had been shot multiple times. Medevac helicopters were grounded by high winds. The most serious patients were taken to the trauma center in Roanoke.

Walker praised the cooperation of the EMS companies involved. Communications worked well also.

Exactly a year ago, the crews participated in a MCI drill. “Little did we know,” Walker said.

A Blacksburg EMT was injured when the ambulance door slammed shut on his fingers. “It was awful. I couldn’t get that door open. He finally managed to get them free. Despite his pain, he drove the ambulance to the hospital.”

D.J. Robinson eventually sought treatment, and suffered no fractures.

Green also said things went smoothly because his squad trains with others. “Everyone knows what’s expected. We believe you can’t train too much.”

Lewis said the crews approached the incident as they would any other, working feverishly to save their patients.

Tragedy in Blacksburg

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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!

What’s in a Name?

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What’s in a Name?

Okay, so I needed to change a character’s name–thank goodness for search and replace! It was Ben but I already had a Jerry, and since the book isn’t about ice cream….
Anyway, so I decided on Mark. The character is a doctor, head of Pittsburgh’s Angels of Mercy’s ER.
Then I got to thinking, there are a lot of Mark’s out there in fictional medical land, aren’t there?
There’s McSteamy from Grey’s Anatomy, aka: Dr. Mark Sloan…

I’m guessing the GA writers were paying homage to the original Dr. Mark Sloan from Diagnosis Murder:

And there’s Dr. Mark Greene from ER:

And, of course, the grand-daddy of all TV docs, Marcus Welby, MD

Okay, given that pedigree, guess I’m gonna keep my guy a Mark as well!! How could I go wrong?