Baystate Medical treats largest number of seriously hurt from collapsed structures and flying debris.
Baystate Medical Center trauma surgeon Dr. Reginald Alouidor said this was the first time he treated tornado victims outside his native Haiti. Area hospitals and medical centers praised their staff for working longer shifts, sleeping at their facilities and putting patients first aside from concerns for their own family members during the recent tornadoes in the area.
“Phone calls were made rapidly and simultaneously. We had very little time to prepare,” said Baystate Medical Center trauma surgeon Dr. Reginald Alouidor.
The center, the only level 1 trauma hospital in the area, handled the largest number of series injuries from the storm.
At a noon press conference, Alouidor said the center treated 25 patients ranging in age from 2 to 60 years old with storm-related injuries. He said 18 of these patients were treated and released with five of them requiring assistance from the Red Cross in finding shelter because their homes had been demolished.
Alouidor said of the seven patients admitted to hospital, two required surgery and a third was in intensive care unit with a condition upgraded from critical to serious.
Alouidor said he expected four of the hospitalized “to do quite well” with the other three requiring rehabilitation.
Alouidor said this was the first time he had to treat victims of a tornado disaster outside of his native Haiti. He said the injuries where consistent with “expected blood trauma.”
“There were a fair amount of extremity injuries and fractures,” Alouidor said.
He added there were also “major liver lacerations, severe spine factures and brain injuries” consistent with the “collapse of buildings” and materials falling on patients as well as patients being “thrown against objects” or “hit by flying objects.”
He said the hospital would continue to be ready to receive any other patients yet to be found injured from the storm.
Alouidor said the hospital was able to mobilize to disaster status within 20 minutes of confirming the extent of the first tornado damage around 5:30 p.m. with 5 trauma surgeons on hand, 23 surgical residents, six or seven emergency room physicians and a “small army of nursing staff” as well as extra trauma and acute monitoring beds and added support from staff in housing keeping, transport and cafeteria services.
He said the center was in touch with other hospitals as well the city’s emergency services during the disaster and Thomas Lynch, director of security , said he felt the center’s execution of its disaster plan went well as components of it had been activated during this winter’s severe weather conditions.
Social and behavioral services were also made available to patients.
Ann Maynard, a registered nurse, is director of emergency services at Baystate Medical Center.“We had staff showing up at the door,” said Ann Maynard, a registered nurse and Baystate’s director of emergency services, of the additional emergency room doctors and 15 nurses who arrived.
Maynard said that while the treatment of non-storm related injuries continued she noticed a definite difference in the patients arriving because of the tornadoes.
“There was fear in their faces,” said Maynard, a veteran nurse of 30 years.
“Those injured patients had the look of fear and terror in terms of what they had witnessed. They looked in the sky and saw what their brains wanted to tell them was a flock of swirling birds but in reality was bricks and debris going around.”
Maynard said these patients also had “concern for other victims.”
“They told stories of what they witnessed. They had not run for safety,” said Maynard, citing one patient who helped a victim they had seen fall in the storm.
Daniel P. Moen, the recently-hired president and chief executive officer for the Sisters of Providence Health System, praised the staff of Mercy Medical Center where nearly three dozen patients were treated for “non-life threatening” injuries for their “great team work.”
“We had 35 patients come from the start of the storm through this morning,” Moen said. “I was so impressed by the staff and the way they responded in a calm and professional and caring way.”
Daniel P. Moen, the recently-hired president and chief executive officer for the Sisters of Providence Health System, praised the staff of Mercy Medical Center where nearly three dozen patients were treated.
Moen said the center had an extra 30 people staffed through a combination of people “called in early, some volunteering to stay and some people just showing up because they knew their particular skills were needed.”
“It was heartwarming to see the great team work through the event,” Moen said.
Nancy A. Coley, spokesperson for Holyoke Medical Center, said “10 to 12 patients” had been treated and released there for storm related injuries with one admitted and in stable condition.
Baystate Mary Lane Hospital in Ware said that one person, struck by lighting, had been admitted but was “expected to go home.”
William Russo-Appel, director of marketing and public relations at Wing Memorial hospital and Medical Centers, said Wing treated 12 patients in its emergency room for minor weather-related injuries.
He said the hospital did call in extra staff because “some of our staff could not get here following the damage from the tornado.”
“We also had some staff stay late to help out,” Russo-Appel said.
Christina Trinchero, spokesperson for Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton, said the hospital had additional emergency room staff on standby but, as no patients were treated at Cooley for storm-related injuries, they were not needed to work.