Monday, April 16th 2007 4:24PM
Hospitals handle a surge of victims
Charles R. Barrineau, CT Reporter
UPDATE: According to Carilion spokesperson Eric Earnhart, one of the three persons transported to Roanoke was pronounced dead. Earnhart said that he believed that the deceased was among the 33 pronouced dead.
Roanoke - Three victims of today's shooting incident on the Virginia Tech campus are currently being treated at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital in South Roanoke.
"We've received three patients here, all critically injured from the incident," said Carilion Spokesperson Eric Earnhart. "They were critically injured and that's all the information I have at this time."
Roanoke Memorial is unique in its status as a top-level trauma facility.
"It's one of the level-one trauma centers in the state, yes, and this would be the trauma center for this region," Earnhart said. "There are certain criteria for level-one trauma centers, including having certain types of doctors on-call, certain types of surgeons on call 24/7. Sometimes certain types of neurological and head trauma are more easily at a trauma center because you have those types of doctors on-call."
Although Roanoke Memorial is a level-one trauma center, that does not necessarily mean that all patients here may require such services.
"I don't know what types of injuries we received," Earnhart said. "Keep in mind, the other situation you're dealing with here is you have a large number of patients, obviously, more than one hospital could handle. And, we have, sort-of, a regional system where when you've got a mass-casualty situation the patients are divided up so that they can be treated appropriately in other places. I don't know if those patients came here because this was the only place we could treat them, or because this is where we had room."
One thing affecting the transport of patients from Virginia Tech to area medical centers is the high winds in Blacksburg and the surrounding area.
"Obviously, you get people here as quickly and as safely as you can," Earnhart said. "You've got to figure safety is a factor. We have two medical helicopters; both are grounded because of the high winds because it wouldn't be safe for the patient or the flight crew to fly in these conditions."
All three patients transported to Roanoke Memorial were done so via ground.
"We have the same critical care equipment in some of our ambulances that we have in the helicopters," Earnhart said. "The patients have the benefits of the same level of care, the same technology in a ground ambulance, but you do have a longer trip. Again, you have to weight the safety of the flight versus the time factor and when it's unsafe to fly you just simply can't do it."
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?