Man, it is depressing sometimes. You FINALLY clear the board of all the to be seen patients. You finally get everyone dispositioned. You make your phone calls, everyone is tucked in. You have one person waiting for some CT results or labs.  And BAM!  The moment you are cleaning your hands in satisfaction the medics bring someone in.  I mean please, can’t you just try to not spoil my 5 minutes of happiness during a shift??!?

Almost makes an argument to just stay a little behind so  your hopes never get too high.

This Amazing Story was forwarded to me. Absolutely incredible.

Joplin Missouri, A Doctor’s Story

“My name is Dr. Kevin Kikta, and I was one of two emergency room doctors who were on duty at St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Joplin, MO on Sunday, May 22, 2011.

You never know that it will be the most important day of your life until the day is over. The day started like any other day for me: waking up, eating, going to the gym, showering, and going to my 4:00 pm ER shift. As I drove to the hospital I mentally prepared for my shift as I always do, but nothing could ever have prepared me for what was going to happen on this shift. Things were normal for the first hour and half. At approximately 5:30 pm we received a warning that a tornado had been spotted. Although I work in Joplin and went to medical school in Oklahoma, I live in New Jersey, and I have never seen or been in a tornado. I learned that a “code gray” was being called. We were to start bringing patients to safer spots within the ED and hospital…..

Read the rest HERE.

Well, the so called “Rapture” was a big dud over the weekend, however the crackpots did predict disasters.  Unfortunately, coincidentally, one occurred in the Midwest the day after the world’s destruction was called for. Tornadoes struck several areas.  North Minneapolis, MN suffered heavy damage and one death.   However, Joplin, MO was virtually levelled and almost 120 killed. Pictures of that town look similar to post WWII Berlin!

The story of how St John’s hospital in that town was hit directly is incredible. I believe all the windows were blown out and  some people were sucked out of the them and killed.  I am sure more horrific stories will surface in the days to come. However, I am sure some heroic stories will too. Take the ER there. I read how the staff went into disaster mode almost immediately and helped co-ordinate getting all the patients and staff as well as the newly injured out to other hospitals.  The picture of the EMS chopper flipped over and almost destroyed aka Blackhawk Down is quite impressive. I worry that if something like that happened to my hospital, would we be as helpful in our ER? Would we be even remotely prepared?  Would people just run out and say “Peace out!” figuring their shift was over?!?  Would I have even the remotest clue of how to proceed?

We’ve done disaster drills but all of them were presuming the ER and hospital were still functioning!  This was more like setting up a field hospital outside the real hospital!  Anyway, I really feel for these folks so affected by the storm and am really impressed by the ER staff (and other rescue workers).  My heart goes out to all of  you.

**Modern ER's in this country have the most advanced medical equipment available.**