It was with a sense of dread combined with admiration that I read THIS article about how the ER staff at a hospital in Aurora, CO handled over 20 gunshot victims in the middle of the night.
I love the bit where some of the morning shift staff come in and, not realizing what it happened, say “how was the night?”
17
Aug
It’s good to see an article like this though. Sometimes I feel like people think we don’t care about patients. I’ll overhear things like “I’m nothing more to these people than a barcode on my wristband”.
That’s not true, for me anyway. I might not like every one of them, but I look at all my patients as individuals with families and lives to go home to and I do care about them. Sometimes I care more than I probably should.
Thanks for posting that. I’ve never felt so proud for working at UCH. It was such an awful situation, but I feel like my hospital did a damn good job of handling it.
Although I must say it reinforced the reasons I do my job, working in the lab. I want to help people, but not necessarily be in contact with them. I admire the front-line responders for handling such a crazy situation.
At least the had practiced for it. Makes me cringe if this happened at the hospital I train at. Haven’t seen or heard about any sort of disaster drill, even though we are the level 1 trauma center smack in the middle of this major U.S. city. Yet, the level 2 center down the road does two drills a year… makes perfect sense.
Great story. I don’t know how I would handle it if that happened in the ER I work at.
The guy in the waiting room telling doctors to take care of the other patients first…what a boss.