Orlando Health officials have done six presentations in Las Vegas in the last year about how to respond to a mass shooting — including an emergency room doctor giving an educational presentation to University Medical Center Las Vegas.
Physicians and emergency preparedness officials shared lessons learned from the Pulse nightclub shooting. Dr. Joseph Ibrahim, the trauma medical director at Orlando Regional Medical Center, said the biggest thing they preach is for hospitals to drill for mass casualty incidents.
“But to be prepared for 500, I don’t know if anybody can be prepared for something like that,” Ibrahim said. “I’m sure they have regional trauma networks where they can make room by sending the less acutely ill to the hospital maybe 20, 30 miles away.”
Officials are advocating for more bystanders to get training on how to stop the bleeding in trauma situations. Orlando Regional Medical Center treated 44 of the victims from the Pulse nightclub shooting were treated.
ORMC officials warned it will take months to take care of patients from the Las Vegas shooting. Eric Alberts, director of emergency preparedness at Orlando Health, said the hospitals in Las Vegas caring for patients are in it for the long haul.
“Again, the patients are going to be there for a long time,” Alberts said. “This isn’t just a 10 or 15 hour situation. This is days, months.”
It took nearly three months before the last Pulse victim was discharged.
