Owensburg General Hospital, an awardwinning facility with over 450 beds was prepared for the influx of patients. The Emergency Command Center at Tiecher Park named them as the First Responder Care Center to manage the processing and care of the victims recovered from the collapse of the soundstage. Being the FRCC meant that they would be responsible for coordinating the services provided by area hospitals and clinics and maintain a data base of people reported to have attended the show, including cross-referencing the names on that list with anyone reported as receiving care at any of the facilities in the network.
The fifty-year-old medical hospital was rated 6th in the State and housed several of the country’s most renowned specialists in Acute Care, Pediatrics and Oncology among the roster of over 600 doctors who practiced there. In the previous year admissions totaled over 22,000 and a total of 48,789 visits were made to their Emergency Room. They housed a first-class Trauma Center and were rated among the highest in patient safety.
Owensburg General was a hospital at the ready. The switchboard was already being swamped with calls from people looking to locate their friends or loved ones. Most callers responded to the lack of information with anger, making the job that much tougher for the operators.
The first patient they treated had a laceration on her arm that required twenty stitches. She was moved to a waiting room and told she could leave after 30 minutes. She was followed by two men and four women that were treated for shock. They were not among the fans directly impacted by the collapse, just bystanders who were having difficulty processing the horror of the situation. The Hospital did its best to process these patients as quickly as possible to make room for the more seriously injured victims that were sure to follow.
Within the next twenty-four hours, OG would process two hundred and twenty-nine patients. Of these, they treated and released ninety with superficial injuries, transferred thirty-seven to neighboring Hospitals and released three patients who died on the operating table to one of the makeshift morgues.
Ninety-nine patients were permanently admitted to OG. Among these, the Hospital performed sixty-two operations ranging from broken bones to amputations. Another thirty-two were admitted for minor injuries, concussions and shock.
Another five patients arrived at the hospital in an unresponsive condition. All five were diagnosed with blunt force trauma to the head or neck and immediately moved to an ICU. Treatment of patients in a coma, varies greatly, depending on the cause. As a precaution, a doctor/nurse team was assigned to the care of each.