LUCAS COUNTY, OH (WTOL) - The response at Orlando Regional got us thinking about whether local hospitals in Lucas County would be able to handle a terror attack of the same magnitude.
Mercy St. Vincent's is just one of the three "level one" trauma centers in the Toledo area, which is a lot for this size of a city. Staff says the hospital is always ready for the unthinkable.
"We have a lot of resources available to us to take care of something that would happen in Orlando," says Dr. Daniel Schwerin, Medical Director for Northwest Ohio EMS Consortium.
Schwerin says the level one trauma centers in Toledo - Mercy St. Vincent's, Toledo Hospital, and UTMC - are trained to act quickly and save lives.
"Here at Mercy St. Vincent's itself, we have an emergency residency program. So we have the ability to activate a number of physicians that are sort of on call, 24/7," he says.
On top of that, Schwerin says there is a board certified trauma surgeon on call all hours of the day. In situations like in Orlando, trauma doctors can bring the hospital to the patient.
"I can actually do a number of field treatment stuff, chest tubes, intubations, stuff like that," Schwerin says.
The level one trauma centers go through yearly training to improve response. Schwerin says communication and mutual aid is key.
Lucas County also has a mass casualty incident program that pulls resources from a variety of emergency departments and private entities to respond to situations like the attack in Orlando in their county.
