LAKEWOOD, Colo — St. Anthony Hospital and West Metro Fire Rescue came together for a drill to practice their skills in the event of a mass casualty incident.
The drill tested their response systems to ensure readiness in the event of a mass shooting, major crash, or other events that need a large response.
"One of the biggest things that I learned is just to make sure that I have clearly defined roles for everybody, I know where other people are, and that we all know what we can expect from each other so that we can get people moving through the department and get where they need to go as smoothly as possible," said Charge Nurse Kyle Sutton.
Though it's a drill, participants treat it as a real-life situation. In this situation, first responders and medical staff pretended that 50 people were injured and in need of immediate medical attention following an explosion at Red Rocks Amphitheater.
Dr. Karen Wanersdorfer, a trauma surgeon and director of surgical critical care, led Thursday's drill. Although this drill is for practice, Wanersdorfer has experience with real mass casualty incidents.
"I was a surgical resident in Las Vegas, Nevada, when the Route 91 Harvest Festival mass shooting occurred. The purpose of this drill is to educate and incorporate all team members that would be involved in the care of patients during a mass casualty incident," said Wanersdorfer.
The drill begins with first responders at the scene of the incident. Their actions are vital to the survival of victims. West Metro Fire then transported the mock patients to the trauma center.
"I thought everybody did really well today. Pretty proud of my crews. It was eye-opening in a lot of areas that we can improve on and just get better at. So more and more training as we go along are going to be imperative that we just get better and better at everything that we do," said EMS Lieutenant Dan Hoff.
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