Brandon Simmons heard the Code Orange announced in the hallways on Saturday afternoon.
asserted
Orange → hear → afternoon
Mr. Simmons, who became quadriplegic after a truck accident and lives in the long-term care area of the Wainwright Health Centre, then watched as the hospital roared into action.
asserted
hospital → become → action
Nurses began preparing medical supplies and lining up stretchers and gurneys and machines around the entrance, then down the hallways of the small community hospital.
asserted
Nurses → begin → hospital
When a friend told Mr. Simmons there had been an explosion at the military base, he wheeled outside and tucked himself into a corner near the emergency doors, out of the way of people coming and going, and sheltered from a wind so strong it was bending trees near the hospital almost in half.
asserted
it → tell → half
Mr. Simmons was recording video as the first vehicles arrived with injured soldiers from the base.
asserted
vehicles → record → base
It didn’t take long for him to see the scope of the tragedy that had occurred, and get a sense of what was coming.
asserted
what → take → sense
“I knew that hell was about to break loose,” he says.
asserted
he → know → ?
Mayor Bruce Pugh calls the Health Centre “our little Wainwright hospital,” a small facility in a small town, where the people working may personally know the patients they’re working on.
uncertain
they → call → patients
Even if the hospital had been completely empty, and it wasn’t, there are only 20 acute care and surgical beds.
asserted
it → be → ?
The disaster for which doctors and nurses were bracing on Sunday afternoon would bring double – or even triple – that number of injured.
asserted
doctors → brace → injured
The Department of National Defence has said that around 4 p.m. a grass fire that had been burning for hours on the base rapidly changed direction toward personnel that were taking part in live-fire exercises.
asserted
that → say → exercises
The first vehicle to pull up to the hospital was a white SUV, which parked in the emergency bay at 4:11 p.m.
asserted
which → pull → p.m.
Mr. Simmons’s video shows four men in army greens emerging, and moving quickly but carefully into the hospital.
asserted
men → show → hospital
Two had their pants hanging in tatters below the knee.
asserted
pants → have → knee
A large military truck pulled up next.
asserted
truck → pull → ?
Military personnel unloaded one person and carried them into the hospital on a stretcher.
asserted
personnel → unload → stretcher
Someone was screaming.
asserted
Someone → scream → ?
Someone was moaning.
asserted
Someone → moan → ?
The wind blew pillows and sheets onto the gravel.
asserted
wind → blow → gravel
At some point, Mr. Simmons turned the camera away.
asserted
Simmons → turn → camera
“I didn’t want to even have it on film,” Mr. Simmons said.
asserted
Simmons → want → film
“I didn’t even want to see it with my own eyes.”
asserted
I → want → eyes
Dr. John Damian Paton-Gay was on-call for the STARS air ambulance service on Saturday night, when he got a call that help was needed in Wainwright.
asserted
help → get → Wainwright
The wind was so strong it wasn’t clear whether they’d even be able to fly, but a shift in the weather allowed them to get off the ground in Edmonton with a helicopter full of supplies.
asserted
them → fly → supplies
They landed at the Wainwright hospital 45 minutes later to an almost unbelievable scene.
asserted
They → land → scene
By the time Dr. Paton-Gay arrived, the injured from CFB Wainwright had already filled up the tiny emergency department and were overflowing into the rest of the small facility.
He saw injured people in every corner and upstairs.
asserted
He → arrive → corner
About 30 patients crammed into a small space, with staff moving quickly around them.
asserted
staff → cram → them
A scene, he says, “that would make a medical TV show look fairly tame.”
asserted
show → say → ?
Burns are measured both in severity and surface area.
asserted
Burns → measure → severity
The injuries Dr. Paton-Gay saw on Saturday evening had no specific patterns, but a consistently high total body surface area burned.
asserted
area → see → patterns
This type of injury meant the conditions of the patients were deteriorating rapidly.
asserted
conditions → mean → patients
“All of the personnel there knew that that was the case,” he said.
asserted
he → know → personnel
“They knew they had to move through the first wave of injured very quickly and prepare for the next ones who were going to get sicker.
asserted
who → know → ones
Even as a specialist working in critical care and trauma for almost a decade, the scene was unlike anything he’d ever seen.
asserted
he → work → anything
It was more like a “mass casualty that would happen in a war or a natural disaster,” he said.
asserted
he → happen → war
Nurses and doctors sped to the hospital.
asserted
Nurses → speed → hospital
Throughout the evening, help kept coming.
asserted
help → come → evening
Medical supplies were brought from other communities by truck, medical equipment flown in by helicopter, and additional hands arrived from the sky, as paratroopers landed in the next-door football field.
asserted
paratroopers → bring → field
The injured were stabilized and then sent by ambulance or air to other hospitals around Alberta and Saskatchewan.
asserted
injured → injure → Alberta
Mr. Pugh acknowledges the health centre itself was “built for a different time and place,” and that the medical needs of the area have long outgrown the building.
asserted
needs → acknowledge → building
…and 15 more, not listed.
The Aporia
