Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Hospital trauma center was prepared as ambulances arrived
FORT LAUDERDALE — The ambulances kept arriving Friday at Broward Health Medical Center after police say a gunman ambushed travelers at a luggage carousel at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
Witnesses and prosecutors described how the shooting suspect — Esteban Santiago, 26, an Alaskan resident — methodically fired 10 to 15 bullets, aiming at victims’ heads. Five people were killed. At 1:15 p.m., “There was a mass-casualty phone call, something we are very prepared for, and it was real,” said Dr. Christopher Roberts, 45, a neurosurgeon at the downtown Fort Lauderdale trauma center. “We do drills for this. So we’re prepared for this. When it’s real, it’s real.”
And on Friday, it was as real as it gets.
The trauma team, which included Registered Nurse Marcy Heuman, 61, didn’t know how many lives they would have to try to save.
They prepared by rounding up technicians, nurses and doctors and suiting up in uniforms to protect themselves from patients’ blood and body fluids.
They had to hustle: The first patient arrived six minutes after the warning call, the hospital said.
In all, 54 patients were brought to the trauma center and nine were admitted.
Six of those had gunshot wounds and three had lesser injuries that may have been from falls or sprained limbs.
Patients were also arriving with heat stroke and, Heuman said, “There were people I’m sure with medication issues because they didn’t have their medications. I know there was a lot of panic, and a lot of small strains, sprains.”
Most were treated in the emergency room.
“There were a lot of anxiety attacks [among patients],” Heuman said. “You can tell them ‘You’re safe.’ That’s what the nurses do.”
One man wounded by gunfire was in critical condition and very scared, said Heuman, who has worked in trauma care for 42 years.
“He had his hand around the respiratory therapist’s back and was just holding him and the therapist was telling him, ‘It’s OK,’ ” Heuman said. “And the nurse that had been caring for him was on the other side [of the gurney] and the patient reaches up with both hands, and the nurse and he hugged.”
Though there was blood present, “the nurse, he had to hug [him], to tell him, ‘I’m with you, I’ve been here with you, I’m not gonna leave you,’ ” Heuman said.
Hands-on care is sometimes what it takes to comfort a patient who doesn’t know what’s going on, is overcome with fear and badly hurt, she said.
But after the patients were sent to the emergency room, intensive care or trauma and surgery, there was another call, with a report of a second gunman.
And that meant more patients on the way, the hospital and a city official said.
“We did get the report and we were on standby for that,” Roberts said.
He said time seems to stand still during such situations and the thought that more patients might be arriving didn’t distract him.
“You have a lot of family members you’re dealing with, a lot of critically injured patients,” Roberts said. “How it happened isn’t really setting in yet. You have a human being that is critically injured who needs help immediately and seconds matter. And that is when you just kick in and everything is second nature.”
He compared the team’s response that Friday afternoon to “a well-choreographed dance throughout the trauma bay.”
To make room for those possible new patients, the team moved the stable ones to the emergency room and one went to the intensive care unit.
But fortunately, the next wave of ambulances never arrived.
“That report of the second shooter was discounted, but we heard about it several times,” said Timothy Heiser, deputy chief of Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue.
He was at the hospital to liaison between the trauma center and first responders from multiple fire rescue agencies.
“The reports of a second shooter were all rumors,” Heiser said.
After the false alarm, “We felt very relieved,” Heuman said. “We were waiting at any minute to get another 50 coming through the door with severe wounds. Everyone prepared, standing and waiting in full [protective] suit, probably for an hour.”
Three days later, five of the nine patients who were admitted to the hospital remain there: Two are in critical condition and three are in good condition, hospital spokeswoman Amy Erez said Monday.
Best of all, for the trauma team, the shooting survivors and their loved ones: Everyone brought to the hospital was still alive.