CHI Health partners with multiple agencies for disaster relief medical response
In an effort to tighten recent local flood response and provide multiple disaster relief, Nebraska Task Force One, Nebraska Emergency Management Agency, and the Nebraska National Guard once again teamed up to tackle another water rescue simulation, this time including CHI Health and Hickman Fire Department.
“After action reports, we kind of identified there were some areas for improvement, so we were trying to incorporate that into today’s exercise,” Urban S&R, Nebraska Task Force One, Chief Brad Thavenet said.
Victims in the simulation spoke out.
“We’re supposed to simulate chaos with people being life–lighted and then people walking through the doors as well,” NE Air Guard recruit of the Student Flight program, Easton Albracht said.
The simulated incident was a boating accident at Stagecoach Lake where the victims had various levels of trauma.
“So I was facing away from the boat accident and this is what happened to me… And my pain is a 10 out of 10,” NE Air Guard recruit of the Student Flight program, Eli Bowlby said.
It was a boat explosion.
“I was a five-year-old on the boat, and I’m really pale and confused,” NE Air Guard recruit of the Student Flight program, Lucas Freitas said.
Intensive Care Unit doctors and staff were expected to treat the patients as a mass casualty accident.
“They’re supposed to figure out what we have wrong with us,” NE Air Guard recruit of the Student Flight program, Gavin Peterson said.
The total operation had several steps:
1. Incident communication between all agencies.
“Something such as this, depending on the size and scope, we’re going to have to rely on a lot of people,” CHI Health incident command, Jeff Gonzalez said.
- Locate victims…
- Proceed with an air to water rescue…
- And deliver them to a local civilian facility in a timely manner and with precision on all fronts…
“Task Force One having the swift water rescue capability, military Nebraska Guard having the aviation hoist capability, and bringing that together to provide the best response for Nebraska,” Director of domestic operations, Nebraska National Guard, Col. Jan Behn said.
They say the communication in this exercise focuses on the readiness of victim treatment.
“With this type of drill, we want to try to tax the system, try to figure out where our strong points are, where our weak points are, identify any shortcomings,” Gonzalez said.
And so that the proper medical resources can be allocated in a structured manner.
“Whether it’s tornadoes, whether it’s ice storms, working with our civilian agencies, instilling that communication capabilities so when disaster happens, our response is more rapid,” Behn said.
They say the communication worked out.
“We’re doing this in response to something we’ve identified in the past and we want to make sure we’ve improved on it,” Gonzalez said.
