Editor's Note: Photos courtesy of Glen E. Ellman/Fort Worth Fire Department.
Interagency cooperation proved essential on Monday, Jan. 8 at 3:32 p.m. when MedStar Dispatch Communications Supervisor Stacey Sokulsky received a police radio transmission reporting a confirmed explosion downtown at the recently renovated Sandman Signature Hotel in Fort Worth, Texas (USA).
With no information beyond the address and the need for medical units, Sokulsky relied on the calm she’d developed over her nearly 37 years of experience in public safety to respond.
“I didn’t want to bombard [responders] with questions,” she said. So Sokulsky sent out five units and a supervisor and started calling administration while her manager sent out pages. MedStar supervisors and paramedics worked alongside Fort Worth police and fire departments to locate and treat the wounded, arrange transport to the hospital, and search among the debris for unconscious patients.
At the time, no one knew the cause of the explosion, which raised anxiety over the potential for explosive devices.
“That puts all of us on edge,” Sokulsky said. “We don’t want to send anyone into an area if they’re not going to be safe.”
Sokulsky’s previous background as a paramedic helps her anticipate the needs of responders at the scene. With confidence, Sokulsky coordinated resources in what she calls “controlled chaos,” as if having a bird’s-eye view, seeing everything at once from above.
As Sokulsky was managing the radio, staff from other departments walked into the communication center, offering their support.
“My team doubled in a matter of 10 minutes,” she said. “Even people from IT walked in and stayed. Several people off duty came in and either clocked in or brought drinks and food to people that weren’t going to get breaks.”
After moving to the mass casualty incident (MCI) channel, triage eventually took over command, directing units and transports in the nonvisual environment and coordinating a complex network Sokulsky refers to as “a city in itself.” Of course, events of this magnitude naturally reveal areas for improvement while directing multiple components at once.
“We worked rather well together,” Sokulsky said. “I think our training needs to be beefed up to maintain contact with transporting units on the MCI channel to keep track of who is going where. But if you didn’t learn from a mass casualty incident, you didn’t do it right.”
Manning the radio was second nature for Sokulsky, but it was uncomfortable to temporarily leave her supervisory role over the Emergency Dispatchers taking calls so she could replace her backup radio personnel who were in training. But she trusted that her team could carry on seamlessly, and they did so with class.
“No one calling 911 from any part of the city was aware or affected by the hotel explosion in the form of response times or delays,” she said. That’s no small feat. As the secondary PSAP, MedStar Mobile Healthcare Communications Department handles an average of 400 medical emergency calls per day in one of the fastest growing cities in the nation.
Sokulsky attributes the success of her team to their training and following the structure of the Medical Protocol. “It doesn’t matter what else is happening, the Protocol never forgets,” she said.
Their provision of critical instructions, such as CPR, sets MedStar apart from some of their surrounding agencies. “Compassion is where patient care begins,” Sokulsky said. “Our instructions convert that emotion into action.”
Though the search efforts continued until the next morning after the suspected gas explosion, most of the 21 injured were rescued within the first hour and 45 minutes, reporting mainly lacerations, broken bones, and burns. One woman was found buried in the debris three hours after the event, but all have since recovered.
