WAVE 3 TV Louisville, KY | Floyd County Stages Drill To Test Readiness To Respond To Chemical Disaster

Floyd County Stages Drill To Test Readiness To Respond To Chemical Disaster

By Caton Bredar

(NEW ALBANY, Ind.) -- With heightened terror alerts, and more chemicals being used than ever in industry and every day life, how would your local hospital stand up to a chemical disaster? That's what medical and emergency officials in Floyd County, Indiana set out to determine Wednesday morning with a disaster drill designed to test Floyd Memorial Hospital's new procedures and equipment in the face of a chemical disaster. WAVE 3's Caton Bredar has more on how the hospital fared on its first big test.

With Boy Scouts playing the victims of a chemical disaster, the situation itself wasn't real, but the potential danger is. According to Floyd Memorial's Manager of Emergency Services, Kathy Scifres, the hospital has dealt with chemical exposure incidents before. 

"We have had chemical spills and decontaminations," she said. "Not on the same scale in terms of numbers (as the drill). But some very well known chemicals, such as gasoline."

In the drill, the victims were "exposed" to chlorine, with varying degrees of exposure and injury.  Their conditions were quickly assessed by an emergency team, with any chemical exposure issues addressed in a new, state of the art, decontamination unit. 

From there, the victims were sent to triage for medical treatment. According to hospital officials, the new decontamination unit, and the hospital's plan, passed the first test, although there were a few areas for improvement.

As Dr. Tom Harris explains, "we had the usual problems with trying to assess people at the scene, knowing what was coming in so that we were prepared to start out with. It's always a learning process but we feel a lot more confident now."

Floyd Memorial Officials say they have always had plans for disaster, but the 1995 gas attack of the Tokyo Subway was a substantial catalyst for change in the plan.

"What they found is that most of the contamination casualties actually presented at the hospital on their own," Harris says. "So we found it would be naive to think a local hospital isn't going to see a contaminated patient showing up on their doorstep."

The new equipment, the drill, and the hospital's current disaster plan are all in response to the likelihood that chemically contaminated patients may show up at their door. 

Hospital officials say they hope to repeat the drill every two to three months. Doctors say the heightened terror risk is a concern, but there are risk factors even closer to home, such as the increase in local factories, the proliferation of meth labs, and the increasing, every-day use of household chemicals. 

Just as in real life, some of the victims of the drill didn't make it out alive. The hope is that with practice, and a good disaster plan, more will survive in the future.

"We are willing to do whatever we have to do...to take care of any situation...and we're going to do it well," Scifres says. 

"Yeah," Harris concludes, "this could be lifesaving intervention."

Online Reporter: Caton Bredar

Online Producer: Michael Dever