Jul 18

Jul 18, 2007
Crashing by design
Emergency workers hone skills during staged mass casualty drill

by SARAH COHLER

Firefighters Sue Parkison and Joseph Rainone carry 10th grader Teresa Falbo to an ambulance during a mock mass casualty drill on Treadwell Lane. —Scott Mullin photo

At first glance, what appeared to be a horiffic accident involving a school bus full of kids and a tanker truck was actually a staged emergency drill orchestrated by Weston’s EMS, Police, and Fire Departments.

Those EMTs, police officers, and firemen who were not involved in drafting the scenario were only told there would be a drill sometime on Monday, July 17, but they were not given a specific time frame or made aware of the details of the scene.

At about 6:30 p.m., the stage was set, and emergency workers were dispatched to an “accident” at the intersection of Treadwell Lane and Lords Highway East.

In the mock accident, an oil truck on Treadwell Lane had attempted to make a left turn onto Lords Highway, but the turn was too wide and it veered off the travel portion of the road and “T-boned” an oncoming school bus.

Those involved in orchestrating the event wanted it to seem as realistic as possible.
The oil truck was inched forward until it almost came into contact with the side of the bus that had been pushed off the road at a 45-degree angle.

Victims

Makeup and costuming added to the realism. According to Teresa Falbo, a so-called “severely injured victim,” makeup provided by EMS took about an hour to put on. “I don’t even know what they used on my face to make it look like this,” she said.

“Some sort of stage makeup, I think.”

Each patient to-be was given a card with his name, age, and physical symptoms.
Teresa’s card, which she had to memorize, told her that she, in addition to neck injuries, couldn’t swallow. So the EMTs carried her off the bus and laid her down on a back board and gave her a suction tube to catch saliva.

Sandra and Peter Roberts and Will Laplaca volunteered to be witnesses to a mass casualty drill staged at the intersection of Treadwell Lane and Lords Highway East. —Sarah Cohler photo

Children screamed bitterly after the “impact.” The most virulent cries — “Ow! My face!” and “Help me!” — could be heard a few hundred feet down the road.

The police were the first on the scene. They gave a brief synopsis to the firemen, who followed close behind, and EMTs, who were quick to arrive after calls were made requesting more technicians.

Fire Captain Larry Roberts was very pleased with the response time. “In the past,” he said, “our scenarios weren’t this elaborate. They were purely procedural, but this has turned out very well.”

At its peak, there were more than 60 personnel directing traffic, getting the kids off the bus and treating them. Each department worked together to achieve a common goal. The whole scene played out so well, it appeared to the unaware observer that it was either scripted or real.

Police directed traffic around the intersection and managed parking. When responding to a real emergency, “Everyone takes his own car to the site,” said Fire Chief John Pokorny. “Part of the drill is managing so many cars in one place. On any given day, there is no one at the firehouse. Dispatch coordinates who will go to the station and bring the trucks.”

The EMTs separated the victims into three categories: Red, yellow, and green.

The green — or stable — victims were taken from the bus first. They had the ability to walk and sustained only minor injuries. They were grouped together on a large red mat so that the serious and critical cases could be dealt with more effectively on another mat.

Although the 12 stable victims by definition required less attention, Nisan Eventoff, a treatment technician, would ask how they were feeling whenever he had a spare breath.

“If you feel comfortable enough,” he said to one young girl with skin abrasions on her cheek, “just stay in that position.”

The eight yellow-labeled patients, those in serious condition, shared a large, red mat with the six critical, or red, kids on the bus.

Beth Low, an EMT treating critical patients, sat next to a prostrate Michael Falbo, who looked as though he had a wooden rod protruding from the right quadrant of his abdomen. Beth pretended to give him oxygen and apologized for cutting his shirt open to get a better look at the wound. The injury to the boy might have been staged, but the ripped shirt will never be the same.

Beth Low, an EMT, helps an “injured” Michael Falbo, who falls into the most severely hurt category. She pretends to give him oxygen to help his breathing. —Sarah Cohler photo

When she asked him how this happened, Mike mumbled something about a science project. After about a minute of treatment, she shouted “bleeding is controlled!” and moved on to nearby Carol Bucaro, who was made up to look as if broken bones were protruding through her left arm.

One ‘casualty’

The driver of the school bus had “died” and the driver of the truck, a diabetic, was “unconscious.” The bus driver’s body was covered with yellow plastic, while the truck driver was seen to by at least three emergency personnel at any given moment, giving him oxygen and checking his vitals.

As firemen checked under both vehicles for fluids that could ignite a fire or cause a hazardous situation, EMTs requested more personnel and oxygen tanks over their walkie-talkies.

The most critical patients were given ambulance priority and were shipped off to hospitals first. Dispatch had to coordinate with the EMTs to ensure that hospitals had enough room. However, since this was a drill, the victims were really dropped off around the corner instead of several miles away in an emergency room.

“Sometimes,” said Chief Pokorny, “hospitals don’t even have enough room for four patients, so we have to move people around.”

Mr. Eventoff, who assumed control of the EMTs on site, asked other technicians, “Westport? Wilton? — OK, Westport,” trying to determine where each patient should be transported.

“It is great local training,” Chief Pokorny said. “We’re not looking at this on a regional scale. We just want to give everyone a chance to put into practice what he’s learned over the last year.”

In addition to the two ambulances, a LifeStar helicopter was scheduled to land nearby to help move patients from the site to nearby hospitals. However, the helicopter had to respond to a legitimate call and so was unable to make it to the drill.

“We don’t use helicopters very often. In the last 33 years I’ve worked here, we’ve only called for one of the five or six available helicopters in the area four times,” said the Fire Chief. “But when we need them, they’re great. They can go to Yale New Haven Hospital in 10 minutes, while it would take over an hour to get there by car.”

Pleased

Both the chief and the captain of the Fire Department were pleased with the result of their orchestrated mass injury. “From the time the call was made to the last victim transported,” said Capt. Roberts, “the whole thing took about an hour, which is great. That includes travel time.”

Sandra Roberts, who played a witness, pointed out that everyone who responded to the drill did so voluntarily. “People are eating dinner, taking a shower; they’re in the middle of their lives when they get a call. And look how quickly they responded,” she said.

Peter Roberts, son of the fire captain, was uncomfortable with all of the face paint.

He thought that it was too realistic, so he along with his friend, Will Laplaca, and his mother were witnesses to the event rather than victims themselves.

Most of the volunteer victims were related to firemen, EMTs, or policemen.

Teresa, who played the victim with neck injuries, said she was told over dinner she had to pretend to get into a large-scale motor vehicle accident. “My first reaction was, ‘Cool! Sounds like fun!’ And it was.”

Drills like this one are done every year around the same location. Chief Pokorny explained that the roads “weren’t too narrow, there’s lots of room for parking, and people who live on Treadwell, here, don’t mind if we park on the edge of their lawn.”

Capt. Roberts said most of the learning comes from the critique after the drill; all three departments discuss what could be improved next time around.

“It’s a pretty open environment. Nobody’s scolding or being mean about it. We all know it’s about learning,” he said.