On Jan. 6, a stream of ambulances delivered 54 patients to Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., after a gunman opened fire at a luggage carousel at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
According to the Sun Sentinel, nine among the 54 were admitted to the trauma center — six of them suffered gunshot wounds and three sustained lesser injuries due to falls or sprained limbs. Patients also suffered from heat stroke and other ailments.
Most of the others were treated in the emergency room.
Christopher Roberts, DO, a neurosurgeon at Broward, told the Sun Sentinel the team was prepared for the situation. "We do drills for this," he told the paper. "So we're prepared for this. When it's real, it's real."
As the Broward team worked steadily to care for the 54 patients, the hospital received reports of a second gunman. The team moved stable trauma patients to the ER and one to the intensive care unit to make room for another wave of patients, but the report turned out to be a false alarm.
"We felt very relieved," Marcy Heuman, RN, a Broward Health trauma nurse, told the Sentinel. "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."
As of Monday, five of the nine patients admitted to Broward remained there. Three were doing well and two remained in critical condition. All who were brought to the hospital on Friday were still alive.
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