The Emergency Department

I am currently on my Medicine rotation at one of the Boston area hospitals.  I was in the ED when the first ambulances pulled up after the Boston Marathon explosions.  The doors opened from the back of the trucks and stretchers were wheeled out.

As medical students, we participate in "mock codes" and learn the basics of urgent care.  We are trained how to deal with traumas.  In the hospital, we run to the bedside every time there is a "code blue" just so we can be there - to help, to watch, and to learn.  But it was unreal to watch ambulance after ambulance pull up to the ED.  We had no idea how many people were injured or in what condition they were.  I did a trauma surgery rotation earlier in the year and never saw anything of this magnitude.

I have found in my rotations that physicians, especially surgeons, have a "let's go to work" mentality. We are here to do this job.  We have to be able to handle whatever the ambulance brings us.  At the end of the day, a patient is a patient, no matter the cause of the injury.

I am so proud of my colleagues who were directly involved with patient care and all of the medical personnel who helped during this tragedy.