As I start this off, I want to make one thing perfectly
clear please. I’m not a “Hero”. I never have been. Please don’t call me that. I’m a man that did what anyone else in my
role and my skillset would have done.
@MurseWisdom is a Veteran that served in a war zone. @MurseWisdom is a hero. Both of my parents proudly served in the
military. They are heroes.
Dr. Kevin Kikta is a hero.
He wrote a story called 45 seconds about his night in the ER that
night. It’s a chilling read. http://statemagazine.org/?p=531
Dr. James Smith is a hero.
He was doing surgery when the tornado hit and ran over 7 miles home to
check on his family. http://www.outpatientsurgery.net/news/2011/05/24-Operating-Through-the-Tornado
The countless, unnamed nurses, RTs, Rad techs, and all the
medical personnel that covered both hospitals that night and continued to staff
them until everyone was taken care of are the heroes as well.
Please save that prestigious title for them … they deserve
it.
With that being said, here we go. I’ve debated the last few days what exactly I
wanted to say. I figured I would say, what I felt, what I did.
It was 5:41 p.m. and it was 32 seconds that would forever
change the lives of people that lived anywhere near Joplin, MO. I was watching the coverage on The Weather
Channel. There was discussion that
Joplin and possibly a hospital had taken a direct hit; however, I knew this to
be true well before it was confirmed on the air. Facebook literally blew up. I knew that St. John’s had taken a direct hit
because of Facebook. But when the weather
channel cut live to a Mike Bettes standing in front of what used to be the
hospital; my heart sank. “I have friends
and classmates that work there” I thought and then Mike came on the air and
pleaded for doctors, nurses, medical personnel to please come to Joplin. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8kg2dEJo_Y&feature=related
It was all I could take, myself and several other nurses
loaded up to make the drive to Joplin not knowing what the hell we would find
but knowing that we had to do something.
We arrived about 4 hours post touchdown and went to Memorial Hall where
the medical triage was. Upon arrival
there, we found them fully staffed and they suggested we go to another
secondary site. We got there and waited
about an hour before I finally was able to get through to the Red Cross. They basically said that if we were already
in Joplin that we should go to Freeman hospital.
Driving to Freeman hospital was problematic to say the least
as we had to drive past what was St. John’s hospital. We were stopped 3 different times at three
different roadblocks, one being right next to St. John’s hospital. I do have to say that this was one of the
most amazing experiences as a nurse. The
police officers stopped us, I said “We’re nurses” and they screamed “nurses” and
opened the roadblocks for us. Once we
got to St. Johns we had to drive around the back of the hospital. Pictures will
NEVER do this justice. I’ve heard it
described as what pictures of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima looked like and I’d
have to agree. It was complete and utter
devastation. People were wandering
around aimlessly obviously in shock of what had happened and the place smelled
of strong, strong natural gas. We
arrived at Freeman hospital finally and walked into the ER lobby. It was one of most surreal scenes I’ve ever
seen. The lobby was literally overflowing
with people and I would estimate approximately 1,000 people waiting to be
seen. I found a friend of mine that
worked there and he said they were out of most every supply except gauze and
gloves mostly so if we could do some basic first aid and try to find the most
ill patients to be seen first. We walked
around and spoke with people, treated and cleaned bumps and bruises, and found
severely injured people to pull back the moment ER beds opened up. On the ambulance side of the ER they had a
convoy of over 100 ambulances and they were literally loading people up and
dispatching them to hospitals in a 200 mile radius. There were buses loading up less severely
injured people and transporting them as well.
The looks on the faces of the people in the lobby is
something I will never forgot. It was
disheartening seeing the look of pure shock at what had happened and trying to
make sense of it all. How could 32
seconds completely change their lives like that. While we treated the bumps, bruises, and
lacerations; we were not able to treat the mental issues that were filling that
hospital and that town. We stayed until about
4 am and then went home knowing that as much as we felt we did we probably didn’t
do enough. Little did I know at the
time, but my ex’s brother was frantically searching for his daughter who was
working at a local restaurant at the time.
Unfortunately, while they found her; her injuries were too severe to
survive. However, she died a hero as
well. She was working to keep customers
and other employees calm before the tornado hit the establishment… she wasn’t
even 18 yet.
I’ve talked to employees from both hospitals and some still
have trouble sleeping or still have mental issues relating to that 32
seconds.
So there are a few things that I learned from this event:
1. Social Networking is a must. As I said, I knew that Joplin and St. John’s
was hit long before it was announced. Facebook
was also a lifeline for people looking for loved ones at that time because if
you couldn’t make a phone call you could send texts a little easier and a text
to a loved one or facebook was a welcome sight for families. 2. If
you don’t know how to text – learn. And teach
your parents, grandparents, anyone with a cell phone to text. To put it into perspective, I tried over 100
times to call the Red Cross that night.. I got through once. Text messages were going after only a few
times of trying to send. 3. NO HOSPITAL IS PREPARED FOR A DISASTER OF
THIS MAGNITUDE. Freeman was out of
supplies initially within a few hours.
Our hospitals are trained to keep supplies on hand for anticipated
need. Not for 1,000 people showing up in
your lobby to be treated in a few hours.
I have disaster training and used to work in that field. This last one scares me the most because I
used to think our hospital is ready, but I think we would run through supplies
in a matter of hours as well and then would have to get inventive like Freeman
staff did.
However, Joplin doesn’t want to be known for that. They want to be known for their drive to
rebuild and they have done an amazing job.
It should be an inspiration for everyone of how to overcome adversity.
@that1murse
