Mass Casualty Incident (MCI)

[HPNFlyGirl]

I was wondering, even before the Denver plane crash this weekend in Denver, what it would be like to work a crash like that. Have any doctors, firefighters, law enforcement, first responders, paramedics, emt's, and so on ever worked a MCI?

If so...what was it like? How do you prepare for something of that nature?

 

[ScottM]

I was wondering, even before the Denver plane crash this weekend in Denver, what it would be like to work a crash like that. Have any doctors, firefighters, law enforcement, first responders, paramedics, emt's, and so on ever worked a MCI?

If so...what was it like? How do you prepare for something of that nature?

One of my friends was the base mortuary officer when a C130 with a double crew hit a canyon wall. The event started as a masscal but she quickly become the busiest person on base.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE5DF1E3CF930A35757C0A960948260

 

[jmaynard]

Have any doctors, firefighters, law enforcement, first responders, paramedics, emt's, and so on ever worked a MCI?

I never worked one in my time as a paramedic, something for which I'm intensely thankful. You can't really prepare for it; you can only learn your trade as well as you can, and apply triage techniques to the best of your ability - and deal with the psychological trauma afterward.

 

[alaskaflyer]

I was wondering, even before the Denver plane crash this weekend in Denver, what it would be like to work a crash like that. Have any doctors, firefighters, law enforcement, first responders, paramedics, emt's, and so on ever worked a MCI?

If so...what was it like? How do you prepare for something of that nature?

Do your job, remember your training, order big/order early, and buckle down. Not necessarily in that order.

Keep the incident commander out of the battle scene but close enough to get good info.
Did I mention order big/order early?

You think a standard MCI is bad? Try working one (or in my case two) involving immigrants who spoke no/poor English