Hospital ER Meets "Major Challenge"

Stonewall Jackson emergency physician Dr. Tony Schmieg, a trained and experienced paramedic, too, began quickly to ponder what was soon to be arriving. "We knew right away it was going to be a major challenge, but emergency room personnel are trained for these kinds of circumstances." A normal ER shift consists of a doctor, two nurses and an emergency medical technician trained in triage. Not only had Stonewall Jackson's ER heard about the wreck at the bridge, but ER personnel also knew there was another wreck involving personal injury that had taken place up the interstate near Fairfield.

"We heard from a Glasgow squad member that there were many people involved with several possible fatalities and entrapments," said Schmieg. "I told the folks on our shift that we needed to call a hospital emergency."

In a hospital emergency, the hospital operator calls all hospital staff members, including nurses, radiology staff, surgeons and doctors who are not trained for trauma as emergency room physicians are.

At the same time a disaster is unfolding, there are still others coming to the emergency room for treatment.

"That was not a problem that morning. One of the unsung heroes of this whole thing was the guy who came in with the flu. After he saw what was going on, he said 'That's okay; I'll come back later,"' remembered Schmieg.

"An amazing number of competent people showed up to help,'' said Schmieg. "Our lead ER physician, Dr. Colleen Arnold, did an amazing job as our coordinator and choreographer. As the injured poured in, she kept track of them and us on a board. All the doctors and medical support staff were calm, thorough, and professional. You don't always see that from people who are not used to dealing with trauma."

Schmieg smiles ironically. "Bad luck smiled on us. It was tough for those people at the scene to have to spend so much time extricating victims, but their staggered arrival helped us to cope with the number of patients. We were very busy early; then it quieted down for a while before it sped back up with the arrival of those who had been extricated after several hours.

"The helicopters took the worst cases from the scene, but we had to deal with some tough stuff. I'm particularly grateful to the radiology people who were there. They must have looked at over 150 X-rays that morning."

The ER staff did encounter a few difficulties with language as some of the victims spoke only Spanish. "But we worked it out and understood each other," said Schmieg.

"I've been around a lot of hospitals and a lot of rescue and fire organizations. I hope folks around here realize how lucky they are to have the services they do. High quality medicine is served here, and I don't say that because I'm a doctor working here. The nurses are awesome. I've seen nurses take money from their pockets to buy food for ER patients who have no money, or they give them a ride home because they have no other way to get there.

"We live in an amazing place. It was great to see the rescue squads working so well together. They're well-trained and demonstrated that under duress. The EMTs did what they were supposed to do. There was even a lady who lives nearby who came by to see if she could make sandwiches for us," says Schmieg.