• 
• CLASS
• JOBS
• AUTO
• HOMES

Only a drill: Edgerton practices for mass casualties

Photo Gallery

Recipe For A Disaster

View Gallery

EDGERTON — Eight-year-old Grace Farrington hadn’t thought about medicine as a career.

But after assisting an Army surgeon Saturday, she wants to be a doctor.

Grace was one of about 50 people who came out to watch a “mass casualty exercise” in Racetrack Park.

Medical personnel from Edgerton Hospital, an Army Reserve unit and Edgerton fire and EMS units staged the exercise, with the help of Edgerton school students, who played the victims, along with several dummies.

It was one of the dummies that Grace worked on. Members of the Army Reserve’s 911th Medical Detachment from Madison dressed her in a surgical gown and mask, and she assisted Dr. David Gourlay with the “victim,” who had a realistic gash to the gut.

“I was operating on his stomach, that got cut open during the accident,” Grace said, grinning from ear to ear. “I got to suck out the blood.”

Grace looked like a pro under the tutelage of the Army professionals.

“One doctor said, ‘you’d better start saving for med school,’” said Grace’s proud dad, Mike.

The public was invited to the event. Young, old and families with kids came.

The event started with a school bus that fictitiously collided with a truck. The 12 injured students and driver not only had injuries, but they were exposed to chemical fertilizer.

Firefighters removed the victims. EMTs performed triage, dividing victims into the most urgent cases, less urgent and least urgent. They were color coded, red, yellow and green.

Dead victims get coded black, said Edgerton Fire Chief Brian Demrow, who coordinated the exercise.

The idea for the event came from the 911th, whose commander, Maj. Patty Olson, is an ER nurse at Edgerton Hospital.

“The 911th asked if we would come and play with them for a day. They needed the practice,” Demrow said. “I think they wanted a chance to show what a M.A.S.H. unit does.

Technically, the 911th is a Forward Surgical Team, which works just behind the front lines.

The unit served in Afghanistan in 2003 and is up for a tour in Iraq.

“It helps us practice our war-fighting skills, and if a local disaster happens, we can help out,” said Lt. Ray McMurphy.

Had this been a real accident, the firefighters would likely have known the victims they were pulling from the bus.

“They would know the kids, know the parents, know the grandparents. It’s a small town,” said Mark Scarborough, a reporter for the Edgerton Reporter.

Same goes for the nurses in the hospital’s decontamination tent. Each victim went through the tent, where the nurses, covered head to foot in protective clothing, simulated washing chemical off the bodies.

“I definitely think we learned, and it’s good to practice,” said nurse Cassie Hutchens.

After decontamination, victims were taken into the 911th’s triage/operating room tent.

A Flight for Life helicopter from Milwaukee landed on the grass, as did an Army Blackhawk.

The Army also provided makeup artists who spattered mint-flavored “blood” and glued other “injuries” onto the victims.

“I have, like, a broken neck,” said ninth-grader Lindsey Carlson.

“Road rash,” said fifth-grader Matthew Klubertanz.

“I’m supposed to be catatonic,” said 10th-grader Joe Linder. “I have a head injury.”

Medics later told Linder that his chances for survival would not have been great.

“I think I got the short end of the stick, out of everybody here,” Linder joked.

Demrow said he hoped the sights and sounds of the day would help the onlookers if they ever become victims in a major accident.

But for Grace Farrington, the experience might possibly lead to her life’s work.

Long after Grace’s victim had been carried into the Blackhawk, she was still hanging around the 911th’s recovery tent alongside other members of the Army team.