LEWISTON, Maine (Reuters) – Dr. Richard King received an urgent call from a fellow trauma surgeon while driving home from the Central Maine Medical Center on Wednesday night. The call informed him that victims of a mass casualty event were flooding the hospital. King, the trauma medical director, immediately turned around and rushed back to the hospital. When he arrived, he was met with a nightmarish scene – the emergency room was filled with wounded and bleeding patients, victims of the latest mass shooting in an American city.
King quickly went to work, performing a “damage control” surgery on one gunshot victim in order to stop their bleeding and save their life. He then moved on to another operating room to continue his work. He described the situation as “organized chaos” and mentioned how surreal it felt to be a part of such an event that is frequently seen in the news.
Central Maine Medical Center’s staff joined a growing list of medical professionals in different cities who have had their hospitals upended by mass shootings in recent years. Despite being located in a city with a population of only 38,000, the fallout from the Lewiston shooting, which resulted in 18 deaths and over a dozen injuries, was unprecedented for the 250-bed medical center.
King mentioned that the number of fatalities on Wednesday was only slightly below the average number of homicides in the entire state of Maine for a year. However, he commended the hospital staff for their response, stating that everyone stepped up to the plate and the entire hospital worked together to provide maximum effort and care. Eight shooting victims, including five stable and three in critical condition, were still receiving treatment at the hospital as of Thursday.
King highlighted the rapid response of the hospital’s surgeons, with upwards of 30 of them being on site within minutes of the first ambulances arriving. As the influx of gunshot victims continued, doctors grew concerned about the blood supply. However, they managed to secure extra blood from nearby hospitals to ensure there was enough supply for the patients.
Reflecting on the aftermath of the shooting, King mentioned that the most difficult aspect for him and other staff members, some of whom lost family members in the tragedy, is coming to terms with the loss of life. Despite the adrenaline of treating victims wearing off, law enforcement officers were still guarding the hospital entrances due to the shooter still being at large. King emphasized the impact of the shooting on the close-knit community of Lewiston and the state of Maine, where everyone knows each other to some extent.
Reporting by Gabriella Borter in Lewiston and Brad Brooks in Longmont, Colorado; editing by Paul Thomasch and Bill Berkrot
