This is a test:
<p>Volunteer victim Seth Lang's fake gun shot wound to his knee was convincing enough. Brooke Roberts said everyone involved with the exercise worked hard to make it as real as possible.</p>
PABLO — A lone gunman died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after he shot several victims in the Michelle Building at Salish Kootenai College. When Leader staff arrived on scene, the number of victims was not yet known and Life Flight had just touched down. Lake County Sheriff Jay Doyle said the injured were being transported to local hospitals. Officials were not releasing the names of victims or the suspect.
This was the scenario for Saturday’s mock emergency on the SKC campus. The emergency drill began around 10 a.m. The initial call from dispatch that an active shooting situation was taking place at SKC came in at 10:50. Sergeant Tony Bluff with LCSO said he received the call at 11 a.m. to respond to the scene in Pablo.
The countywide drill included the Lake County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO), Ronan and Polson ambulances, Lake County Search and Rescue, medical staff at both St. Joseph Medical Center and St. Luke Community Hospital, Salish Kootenai College, Lake County Office of Emergency Management, Lake County Public Health, Red Cross, EMS, Alert helicopter staff, Tribal Health Department, Ronan Fire Department, and the Polson Police Department.
Ambulances zoomed past taking victims to medical facilities, while a Gator all-terrain vehicle took Alert operators to the scene so they could tend to and transport severely wounded victims. Amid what seemed like mayhem and chaos, first-responders on scene were calm and collected.
The same calm could be found in the emergency department of St. Joseph Medical Center. Georgiann McCoy, the new lab director at St. Joseph’s said she has been in healthcare since 1975. She said she had never seen a drill this extensive, with this many agencies involved and this many participants. McCoy said the whole plan was well thought out and each person had an assigned role.
“This is really quite impressive,” she said.
Brooke Roberts, St. Joseph’s community education coordinator, was acting as the hospital’s information officer. She said she was impressed with the employee response. The exercise was a first for many at St. Joseph’s and Roberts said she couldn’t believe how composed and organized everyone was, while real patients came in alongside the volunteers from the drill.
“It’s going well,” she said Saturday afternoon. “It’s testing the system the way it’s supposed to.”
JoAnn Hoven of St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula helped Roberts in her role during the event. Hoven said when accidents like these happen and it’s good to be prepared. She recalled a bus crash last winter in which passengers were hard to identify and St. Patrick staff had to handle the chaos of so many patients, dealing with the press and trying to contact the families of the injured passengers. She said the drill was an accurate representation of a real-life scenario.
A central headquarters located on the second floor of the hospital was the command center where staff kept track of the developing situation. Computers and scanners blinked and blared, informing the medical team when victims of a real-life car accident were en route to the hospital.
James Kiser, chief executive of St. Joseph’s, acted as the hospital’s incident commander. He said the community should realize how great their health safety net is in Lake County.
“They don’t always need us, but when they do, they really need us,” he said.
The exercise was called off early so first-responders and medical staff could care for real victims, but from all standpoints Lake County is well trained and prepared for action should an unfortunate event like the exercise should happen.