First responders train with simulated mass-injury event

COLUMBUS, Ohio — From festivals to sporting events and even concerts, we host a long list of large-scale events in the Buckeye State, which often draw thousands of fans to enjoy the fun. With so many people at one place at the same time, that raises the risk of an emergency situation or terror attack injuring numerous people at once.

While first responders hope something like that never happens in Ohio, teams practiced assisting patients impacted by a simulated tragedy Thursday at the Columbus Fire Training Academy to be better prepared in case of an actual mass injury incident.

“When you put it into practice, you realize that the best laid plans, you know, everything needs to be tweaked a little bit and that we need to have different processes and adjust it,” said Dr. Brad Gable, OhioHealth medical director for simulation. “And if we have a chance to practice that before we actually encounter it, that means that our participants and the public are going to be safer as a result.”

The training allowed first responders to try out a different system of triaging patients, grouping them by color to indicate their priority for treatment based on the extent of their injuries. 

“They’re actually trialing a slap bracelet system to see if it’s useful and that they don’t fall off,” said Kara Portier, a simulationist with OhioHealth while watching the training. “But they do a very quick assessment of each patient to determine a priority of who needs to be treated first, second, third and so on.”

For one of their training scenarios, first responders rushed to the scene of a simulated explosion that injured runners and bystanders at a race. OhioHealth emergency medicine residents played the part of injured patients. 

“Being able to see it from a different perspective, from, you know, the patient side of things really allows them to have some really empathic care for, you know, the patients that we serve,” Gable said.

A team of simulationists with OhioHealth applied makeup to everyone acting as a patient, including Dr. Winnie Gikunda, who was given fake burns. She was positioned near the explosion site where she waited until first responders arrived to assess her “injuries.”

“It’s a very surreal feeling, like, ‘Oh, my God, this can happen to me and no one’s there to help me,’” she said. “So that definitely gave me a different perspective.”

It is an experience she said she will never forget and will keep in mind whenever she is around a big group of people.

“We hope that it doesn’t happen, but unfortunately it does,” she said. “So, I think the best thing would just… Just be prepared.”

In addition to OhioHealth physicians, Columbus fire and police, race directors, amateur radio operators, the Red Cross and other agencies participated in the training. Each group would already be on site at a similar event to mitigate any potential safety concerns, and would be able to assist in an emergency.

“It’s not uncommon to have an event that has four or five, six patients,” said Columbus Division of Fire Medical Director Dr. Robert Lowe. “But obviously once you start moving to 20 and 30 or God forbid, you know, more than that, there’s another level there, right? There’s a level of people needed. There’s a level of skill needed, and there’s a level of coordination needed with all of our health care partners and responding agencies.”

He said helping as many patients as possible, as quickly as possible, is key, as well as prioritizing care for those with the worst injuries.

“It’s teaching a framework of how to manage chaos,” Lowe said. “Because the biggest thing in this is not to get overwhelmed, not to get frozen.