By Jill Harmacinski
The Eagle-Tribune
LAWRENCE, Mass. — The medical helicopter, with a critically injured patient, a pilot and a trauma crew on board, crashed just seconds after lift-off into a Lawrence General Hospital parking lot.
There were burns, lacerations, loss of limbs, head injuries and sadly, one fatality.
And while the whole emergency was fake — indeed, a mock disaster training drill — a variety of rescuers all raced to the scene and jumped into action Tuesday morning.
“It’s a scenario, God forbid, we have to be ready for,” said Lawrence Fire Chief Brian Moriarty.
Hospital official Paul Brennan echoed similar sentiments.
“You don’t ever expect it to happen — but the reality is it could happen today. This is all about evaluating and strengthening our response plans,” said Brennan, LGH director of pre-hospital EMS and emergency preparedness coordinator.
Around 9:30 a.m. rescuers responded to parking lot number 4 at Lawrence General, near the helicopter landing pad, for a report of a helicopter crash with severe injuries. Not only had the helicopter crashed but hospital employees in the parking lot on their way to work were also hurt in the fictitious scenario.
The drill simulated the crash of a helicopter with an injured patient on board as it was lifting off from the hospital helipad. Such medical helicopter flights are routinely used to quickly shuttle a patient to a Boston hospital for intense treatment.
But on Tuesday, an overturned van sat in the parking lot representing what would be a crashed helicopter. Injured people hung out of the van and they were complete with fake lacerations and blood strewn about their bodies.
Others among the “injured” were sprawled out on the ground nearby, including LGH paramedic Jon Lovett, North Andover firefighter and EMT Jeff Deschenes and Deschenes’ children, Ryan, 9, and Emily, 12, who their dad volunteered to be “victims” Tuesday.
Police, firefighters and paramedics who immediately arrived on scene immediately started tending to the injured, triaging them in order of most severely hurt so they could be shuttled to the hospital’s emergency room.
Acting Deputy Fire Chief Eric Zahn could be heard assessing the injuries with firefighters, saying “burns, loss of limbs, concussion.”
Lawrence General routinely runs such drills “to test our internal process as well as the connections and coordination with other community responders,” said Jill McDonald Halsey, a hospital spokeswoman.
McDonald Halsey was also on scene Tuesday, stationed at the incident command center where, in a real time situation, she would be tapped as the hospital’s “Public Information Officer” and would address the media.
Brennan explained Tuesday’s drill was a “little out of the norm” as the training scenario involved a Boston MedFlight helicopter and injuries to hospital co-workers.
“This tested a number of things you may not have seen but behind the scenes were there,” Brennan stressed.
Both Brennan and Moriarty, a former LGH paramedic, explained there was no “pass or fail” to Tuesday’s training exercise but a learning experience for everyone who would be involved in such a disaster.
“We’ll review the entire response and see, if we had a do over, what would we do better,” said Brennan, adding working together “in a multi-agency drill is extremely beneficial.”
Brennan thanked Coady’s Towing on Marston Street for providing the overturned van used as the downed helicopter Tuesday.
“There is so much cooperation around here for this kind of stuff,” he said.
Participating in Tuesday’s drill were Lawrence General staff, LGH Emergency Medical Services, Lawrence fire and police, Boston MedFlight, Guardian, local ambulance services, regional Department of Public Health emergency coordinators and observers.
Copyright 2016 The Eagle-Tribune