Physicians from City Hospital #1 did not know what kind of casaulties to expect from the theater center. They were ready for gunshot wounds, but a number of the freed hostages had simply suffocated during transport.
Russian Health Minister Shevchenko yesterday revealed at a press conference that, while using gas in the hostage rescue operation at the theater center, «specialists were warned about the gas, including myself. Even though the operation was of an urgently necessary character, we had prepared more than 1000 doses of antidote.» Let us leave these words on the conscience of the minister, and those who forced him to utter them.
And, without further commentary, we will describe the first hours after the storming of the Dubrovka center, and what actually went on in the emergency room of Moscow City Hospital #1. In the words of the physicians, nurses, and other witnesses.
What little the workers in the emergency department knew about the assault on the theater, they found out only from brief announcements on the news. The intensive care unit had but 12 beds, and 10 were already in use by the usual victims of automobile accidents. None of the physicians expected the delivery of mass casualties to their department. They were more worried about colleagues whom they knew would face this disaster, which they guessed would consist of many gunshot wounds.
No one paid attention to the khaki-colored UAZ van, a box-like vehicle that pulled up to the side doors of the ER at about 9 am. The driver did not know that the doors on the other side were always open, but instead he banged against the locked personnel entrance for several minutes.
When the door was finally answred, the UAZ crew opened the sliding door of their vehicle. The hair on the ER workers' head stood on end. Inside the 12-seat UAZ van were stacked — in the literal sense of the word — 30 (THIRTY) victims. Motionless. Without gunshot wounds. The UAZ crew could not say a word about the character of the victims' injuries.
The first mission of the emergency personnel was to simply unload the vehicle. Luckily, it was good timing — shift change — and their were twice the number of medics in the department. A newspaperman who found himself on the scene at first tried to work as a reporter, but under the withering stares of the emergency personnel, he was soon helping the medics transport the victims into the ER.
It immediately became clear that several of the victims were already dead in the vehicle. Not from the gas, but from being suffocated under the weight of other bodies. At the very bottom of the pile was a 13-year-old girl. Diagnosis: crushed to death.
Physicians in the course of their duties often work with Fentanyl, and they understood what they were dealing with from the smell. The characteristic semi-sweet, almond smell was so strong on the victims' clothes that several nurses complained of dizziness and nausea.
The victims were dragged into the ER and quickly filled all free space in the department. Even the floor. The secret 'antidote' for Fentanyl was very simple, and the ER had a lot of it. They began injecting it. In the confusion of dragging bodies to and fro — no one was prepared for such a number of casaulties — some patients were overlooked, and some received multiple injections. Later they started marking the arms of those who had received the antidote.
All, who were not crushed during transport, were saved.
The physicians had but one regret — if only they had known that these victims were being brought in, they would brought gurneys from the hospital's upper floors down to the ER, instead of dragging critically-ill patients around on the floor. And another thing — the doctors wished they could have warned other hospitals. City Hospital #13, for instance, did not know what it was dealing with, and had no emergency department, either.
Later in the day the chief physician strayed into the ER, and began shouting that some hospital personnel were not wearing their surgery caps. It was unsanitary, you see. He asked one doctor: «Why are you wearing torn slippers?» The physician: «I have no others.» To which the head doctor replied: «Fine, I'll send you a pair in lieu of a bonus.» |
