I would like to share my experience of this past Saturday's drill.
First off, I found this experience invaluable!
Second, I am very appreciative to all the 'victim' volunteers who spent their Saturday in the car and on the floor, as some of them travelled some distance to participate. Thank You!
Ok, on to the nitty gritty.
It was a simulated tornado disaster, and I do mean DISASTER. Thirty plus people in an office environment with varying injuries. I really was pulled into the event believing it could be a real.
The ratio of CERT volunteers to injured was a very plausible, 1:6. We were immediately overwhelmed and most of my training went 'out the door' so the speak. I didn't know what to do first, there were so many people that needed help. Initially only three CERTs were capable of search and rescue / triage. The other two CERT volunteers initially stationed themselves outside to set up a medical area and command post. This is where I made my first mistake, giving some of my gear to the command post. Don't give away your gear! You learn the buddy system in training but we quickly abandoned that. Why you ask? I can't really say for everyone, but as for me, it felt as if I crawled into my head and went numb.
I walked by the worst victims without tagging them, see rule above 'don't give away your gear!' It wasn't that my training kicked in and I realized they were 'black / dying'. It was my lack of training that said, 'there is nothing i can do for them'.
When I came across a women with a stick lodged in her throat I started to help before I realized, 'I can't'. I can't stop bleeding like this. I rolled her back over and kept moving. It disturbed me because I knew she was dying and there was nothing I could do. Soon after this I kept thinking, 'when is this going to be over?'
I ran out of bandage supplies twice. Victims I escorted to the treatment area were coming back into the building! I was losing hope fast. I started to lose gear. Where's my flashlight? I had abandoned my work gloves immediately upon my first patient. Buy better gloves, I thought. I couldn't find my scissors! I was desperate. But I kept going. That's all I could do, keep moving. So i picked up patients who were able, and escorted them to the triage area.
I had a plan but it was falling apart. It went something like this and was based on 'the most good for the most amount of people'. Get people out of the building to the treatment area. Then work on the the ones that couldn't be moved. I was sticking to it, this plan. But it was not appropriate for the scenario. Too few rescuers, too many wounded. People had all sorts of things sticking in them and through them. Stop the bleeding! That should have been my first job. Finally they called it. I was exhausted! Did we save anyone? Not this time. But I feel much more prepared now.
The wrap up.
I learned many things. 1. don't give away your gear.
2. you can never have too many bandages.
3. wear your important gear, don't put it in pockets.
4. don't abandon the buddy system.
5. don't be afraid to stop and re-evaluate.
6. invest in good gloves / gear.
7. Treat them where they lay and tag them
8. Children should probably be labeled a minimum of yellow no matter what.
9. Learn all the pressure points!
10. Realize you are doing the best you can with what you have, it'll be over soon.
The simulation.
I really appreciate now, the phrase, 'there were bodies everywhere'. It humbled me. This is coming from someone who heard tragic stories all through high school. Whose parents were in the police, fire and nursing professions.
This exercise was the most important part of learning to be a C.E.R.T and invaluable in learning how to deal with true emergencies. But some ground rules or parameters of the drill should have been laid out. It would have gone a long way to explain what could have been simulated and what had to be imagined or inferred.
1. Because it was inside, fake blood couldn't be used as much as needed. Some wounds that should have been flowing blood looked more dry and cauterized. I realized afterwards that they should have been treated as bleeding wounds - i.e. wrap tightly and raise above the heart.
2. The extent and number of victims led me to believe the building was unstable - therefore search / rescue and move to triage outside was a first thought. However, I was wrong. Triage in place would have gone a long way to saving lives rather than wasting time moving people to a central treatment area. I might be being too critical here but it would have helped me concentrate on the tasks at hand rather than second guessing myself. But maybe that was the point, to have doubt, stress, chaos and general overwhelming sense of a disaster. But I want to stress, this was the most valuable training I could have received anywhere and I would do it again. Thank you Mr. Swanson and all the volunteers who spent their day planning and executing such a sobering event.
