June 24, 2009: disaster simulation/drill. Spring and Summer are prime time for severe weather.
Severe weather had been threatening for days. Yesterday, conditions came together to spawn tornadoes, two of which hit Burleson, Texas.
Okay. Before you panic, this was only a drill. A disaster drill.
Back to the scenario: the first, an EF-3, struck the high school; it went across the stadium and through the school building itself, causing major damage and multiple injuries to students, educators and visitors.
Karen and I were students who'd been in the field house at the Stadium. Karen was 16 years old, Jewish, who suffered cuts and bruises to her face, chest and arms, who needed to walk with assistance. She was supposed to scream in pain and ask for a rabbi.
Karen's vital signs were pretty stable, even though she was hollering. She was green tagged: one of the walking wounded.
I didn't fare quite as well. I was a 17 year old student, who'd been knocked unconscious and had head injuries, deep cuts to my face, neck, chest, arms and hands. My vital signs were lousy.
Can we say unstable?!?
I was red tagged: critical.
The door to the field house opened and in came the Marines - errr, firemen and rescue personnel. They got the walking wounded out first and came back to "treat" those of us who weren't as fortunate. While they were taking care of the walking wounded, one of the paramedics thought he heard a cat.
He did: my twin sister screaming "Owwwwwww." Sounded just like a cat. LOL (At least she didn't do her real meow. It sounds just like a kitty.)
They came back to me and two of the paramedics picked me up to move me out of the field house (which had caught fire by this time). One of them passed gas.
Not oxygen.
Brrrrrrrrrrrr. Kind of sounded like a trumpet.
The other paramedic screamed, "Oh, God, kill the patient! We need O2 over here - STAT - for me!!"
Here I am, supposed to be unconscious. The one who tooted apologized and said, "It must have been those beans and jalepenos I ate last night."
I cracked up, big time. Got a major case of the giggles. The paramedics said, "Hey, you're supposed to be unconscious. Stop laughing!" I couldn't help it. It was too funny. Still makes me laugh when I think of it.
They got me outside and laid me on the ground. It was at this time the EF-5 tornado hit a housing development near the high school. All of the many firetrucks and ambulances sounded their air horns five times, loudly. (That was the simulated tornado hitting.)
Like to jumped out of my skin.
And of course, this is when they ran out of stretchers due to all the casualties from the first tornado.
So, the paramedic coordinator told me to walk to the ambulance and tell them I was on full spinal precautions.
Walk. Me, who's unconscious. Riiiight.
I walked to the ambulance and when they got me in the back, I told the ambulance attendants what the paramedic coodinator had told me. The ambulance attendants strapped me down to a spine board. Neck collar. Straps at head, shoulders, midchest, hips, thighs, legs. Big cushiony things on either side of my head ("bricks").
Great. I'm severely claustrophobic.
All I could do was lie there and breathe deeply and talk to myself: "This is only a drill. This is ONLY a drill."
Breathe, Karla. B r e a t h e.
The ambulance took me around the building while they called in my "injuries," and then my part was done. They unstrapped me, much to my relief, and let me sit up.
MUCH to my relief. LOL I was really sweating, even though the back of the ambulance was (ahhh!) air conditioned.
They handed me another bottled water and said I did really good. I said, "Yeah, until one of the paramedics farted." We all busted a gut over that one.
They drove me back to the staging area, and said they hoped I enjoyed my free ambulance ride (I did, mostly, except for the STRAPS!!), where I met up with Karen and told her what they'd done to me. She howled with laughter. She also told me they'd interviewed her for Channel 11, they would have interviewed me, but I was unconscious. =]
The unconscious don't talk. Only laugh. =]
We survived Disaster Drill, 2009. Got the T-shirts to prove it. "WMD: Exercise."
Guess that stands for Weather (of) Mass Destruction. =]
