SEATTLE, Wash. -- Moments after the crash between the Duck vehicle and the charter bus, Anne Newcombe began mobilizing the disaster medical response center at HarborView.
"They told us there was a mass casuality, a collision of some sort," said Newcombe. "We were to expect a large number of patients."
Newcombe, a nurse, is also in charge of coordinating disaster responses from HarborView.
Firefighters and paramedics on the bridge told her how many patients to expect before the patients were even loaded into ambulances.
Right away, Newcombe started communicating with 17 other King County hospitals.
She gets a snapshot of their capacity and the number of sick and wounded patients she can dispatch to other hospitals, if needed.
The numbers are calculated on 21st century computer software and 20th century dry-erase white boards.
"We train for this. We spend a lot of time training," said Newcombe.
The sickest of the sick -- about 17 victims -- were rushed to HarborView. The rest of the injured were taken to other hospitals, coordinated by Newcombe while they were en route.
"When we're doing this distribution, if families are involved, we really want to keep families together. We want to keep children together," said Newcombe.
