Training, timing and luck saved lives in the minutes after the Boston Marathon bombings, the president of Massachusetts General Hospital said today.
“I think we are very proud … that of the 250 people that showed up at hospitals that day that were alive, every single one of them is still alive,” Peter Slavin, the president of MGH, told the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce.
The twin bombs exploded on Boylston Street at 2:50 p.m. on Patriots Day — just 10 minutes before shift changes at the emergency and operating rooms inside the city’s hospitals.
“We were double-staffed, as were the hospitals around the city, so we had extra hands available to care for this onslaught of very sick people,” said Slavin.
They included 39 patients at MGH alone, suffering from knee amputations, severe blood loss, third degree burns, open fractures and head injuries. Twelve had to be admitted and six were critically ill and rushed into surgery within minutes because of severe blood loss and, in a few cases, cardiac arrest, said Slavin.
“The next 45 minutes to two hours was unprecedented in our history,” said Slavin.
Patients began arriving at MGH within minutes — partly because the bombings occurred just 50 yards from medical tents filled with first responders and ambulances.
Boston EMS also effectively diverted patients to several area hospitals — including six level-one trauma centers — so that no single medical center shared the brunt of the injured patients, he said.
“If we had received five times as many patients as we got on marathon day, people could have died,” said Slavin. “We couldn’t have gotten 30 patients to the operating room within a matter of minutes.”
But hospital staff were also well-trained, Slavin said. They learned from colleagues at other hospitals who had responded to previous disasters in other parts of the country, including the Rhode Island night club fire and the movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colo., and also recently received training from an Israeli team who are experts in treating injuries caused by improvised explosives.
The last bombing victim was released from Beth-Israel Deaconess Medical Center yesterday. Slavin noted many are still in rehabilitation centers — and staff are still reeling, too.
“The work didn’t end on Patriots Day,” said Slavin. “This has had an enormous toll on our staff, some of whom are still getting counseling from the trauma they experienced as a result of caring for these wonderful people.”