Drill helps emergency crews stay prepared

As first responders arrived on the scene they found numerous victims with life-threatening injuries scattered among the trees and in burned out vehicles. The drill brought out members of the NAS Jax Fire Department, Security and Naval Hospital Jax including Branch Health Clinic Jax's entire medical, dental and administrative staff, who spent several hours extricating and triaging 43 victims.

But this was no ordinary drill for Naval Hospital Jax, it was an emergency multiple casualty event involving all seven of their branch clinics. "We are actually holding drills at each of our different clinics including NAS Jax, NS Mayport, NAS Key West, NAS Atlanta, NSB Kings Bay, Ga., Athens, Ga. and Albany, Ga. Each one has a different scenario - a bomb blew up one clinic, radiation exposure, pandemics, a plane crash, steam leak and a tornado," explained Naval Hospital Jax Emergency Preparedness Coordinator Dana Shropshire. "Since Naval Hospital Jax is the parent command, we are monitoring each situation. The purpose of doing a multiple scale type event is to determine what our capabilities are and how will we better support our clinics in the field if the request came through. We are testing our emergency preparedness plan in a multiple casualty event. We have different fire departments, security and all our branch clinics participating in these events."

HN Tasha Nathan of Branch Health Clinic Jax, relays information about a victim being transported to the hospital.

As victims of the plane crash were located, they were taken to a triage area where their injuries were assessed and immediate care was provided by medical personnel. They were then loaded into awaiting ambulances and transported to the hospital emergency room (ER). To make the drill even more challenging, the power was knocked out to the hospital.

"The hospital is taking the victims all way through the ER to the wards and admitting them during this event. It should be pretty challenging without electricity," said Steve Parrish, Naval Hospital Jax medical incident commander.

"These drills are essential to keep our providers prepared. We train to come out here as a medical group to provide medical care on scene understanding that if we actually do have a mass casualty event or act of terrorism, our base is going to close down and we will be on our own handling the situation without any outside help. We would manage our patients here as best as we can," he added. "It takes lots of training and dedication by all the medical providers to work in concert with the police and fire department and other people on base to provide medical services to those wounded or those otherwise made ill by an event such as this."

HM3 Earl Payne, Chaplain (Lt.) Ruben Ortiz, HM3 Luis Santiago, Capt. Mary Jackson and Lt. j.g. Greg Blazina care for ATAA Michael Tekac in the emergency room. Photo by HN LeeAnn Lowman

As the victims were transported to the hospital for the second portion of the drill, the on-scene responders carefully packed up their equipment, breathing a sigh of relief. "It went pretty good today, but we still have some work to do. I actually had more people in my command post today than I have ever had at one of these drills. We worked better together this time,'' said Assistant Fire Chief of Training Fred Lanier.

By working together as a team, emergency responders here seem well prepared for any emergency that might occur. "It went very well! We identified some things that we could improve upon. But overall, it was a great drill. All the comments I'm receiving from observers and participants are saying it was a very well executed drill," said Shropshire.

"I really appreciate the involvement of a group of students from Jacksonville University who worked with the moulage team and the folks from the Center for Naval Aviation Technical Training Unit Jax who served as victims in the scenario.

Naval Hospital Jacksonville personnel man the Emergency Operation's Center during mass casualty drills involving all the hospital's Branch Medical Clinics throughout the Southeast Region Friday.

"We had great participation from the base disaster preparedness office, police and fire departments. Their efforts were well organized and we got a well-coordinated effort from all the departments on the base. We also worked our branch health clinics from Key West to Atlanta into this evolution and they also worked with us very well," she continued. "The lessons learned from this drill will be addressed in the next one scheduled for June. That drill will also provide an opportunity to use some new equipment we've received."

NAS Jax firefighters, security and medical personnel work together to help victims during a mass casualty drill Friday.