The following guest view was written by a Medical Center Health System nurse who worked the day of the mass shooting.
August 31, 2019
Wow. Has it been 4 years since that horrible day? It is as vivid in my mind as yesterday. The patients and their families fresh in my mind.
I never thought I would see the day we had to initiate the emergency call back roster for disasters, but August 31, 2019 came to us as a total surprise. It was amazing how well the process worked with our whole team communicating the need for assistance and coming into work swiftly to assist their coworkers in this disaster. All areas of surgical services such as pre-op, recovery room, outpatient surgery and sterile processing readily reported to help these patients and families.
Driving from home to the hospital was a little scary – not knowing what the actual situation was. Tons of questions rolling through my mind. I hope I make it safely. I hope my family is safe or finds refuge wherever they may be. Is this really happening and if so, where are they? What will I do if I come upon active situations? Please Lord, protect us all. Arriving at the hospital and seeing coworkers flowing into the building was a reality that this is REALLY happening. However, I was relieved that my Surgical Services and MCH family that were flowing in were safe.
We moved to action to assist our coworkers even though it was organized chaos. Our staff developed their teams of nurse, surgical techs, anesthesia techs, nursing assistants, and anesthesia providers to prepare instruments, supplies, and the Operating Rooms to accept these patients immediately. Within 5-7 minutes these rooms were prepared and ready to receive the critical patients from the Emergency Room. The communication was exceptional with all departments involved. ER, ICU, Medical/Surgical Floors, Blood Bank, Sterile Processing, House Supervisor – there was not one person idle. Everyone was helping each other.
People kept arriving to eagerly help, including our Materials Management staff. They jumped in manning the phones at the nurses’ station, to relay communications of updates of the community situation, patients arriving to the ER and ones that we would be receiving in the operating room. They quickly obtained waters, Kleenex and snacks for folks that may have needed them. Surgeons were coming in to help their fellow Surgeons. Everyone was willing to pitch and do whatever it took from retrieving blood from the blood bank, retrieving medications, cleaning of operating rooms, relaying information to families quickly, and preparing for the next possible patient no matter what their title may have been.
It was a very frightening and emotional day, but a day that made me extremely proud to be apart of our MCH family, where we not only take care of our patients, but each other as well.
C.S. – MCH Operating Room RN
