Teams of primarily ER nurses and EMTs from fourteen Long Beach area hospitals participated in a mass casualty decontamination disaster drill at St. Mary Medical Center Wednesday morning.
The purpose of the drill was to prepare emergency room staff for the possibility of a chemical warfare attack on the city of Long Beach. Team members suited up in hazmat suits and took inflatable patients through decontamination procedures.
“First off, absolutely amazing job with everything I’ve seen here, you guys really should give yourselves a hand,” Long Beach Police Lieutenant Ryan Watson said to the teams after the drill concluded.
Before the drill began, Kathy Dollarhide, director of the Disaster Resource Center at St. Mary Medical Center, quizzed the teams on the proper procedures for treating patients with chemical injuries.
The different teams, from Catalina Island to Downey, put on their hazmat suits to completion by taping down the boots and gloves and moving inflatable patients through decontamination tents.
The drill is meant to simulate what would happen in a “mass casualty incident” if there was a chemical weapon terrorist attack in Long Beach.
Long Beach and the Los Angeles area are particularly vulnerable to attacks due to the area being one of the largest shipping hubs in the world, according to a 2007 risk assessment study.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, local hospitals have not been able to train for such events for the last two years.
“It was definitely a learning experience for a lot of people that have never done this at all,” said Jeff Hovsepian, logistics coordinator for the Disaster Resource Program at Long Beach Medical Center. “Because of COVID, we weren’t able to train in person like this.”
More training like this will be coming soon as the country emerges from the pandemic. Dollarhide will coordinate another training in two years where they will “blow up the airport” in a simulation.
“We’re a family, we’re a community and we take that seriously because if something happens in this community, we care and we want it to be safe,” Dollarhide said to the sweat-covered teams after they finally removed their hazmat gear.
In Photos:
An ER worker emerges from the decontamination tank during a simulated chemical weapon attack at St. Mary Medical Center on May 11, 2022. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune) 
An EMT with the Long Beach Medical Center, Francisco Taruc prepares to remove his wet hazmat suit after finishing a training run for chemical attacks at St. Mary Medical Center on May 11, 2022. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune) 
An ER worker gets her gloves taped down for her hazmat suit during a chemical attack training simulation at St. Mary Medical Center on May 11, 2022. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune) 
A group of ER nurses and EMTs from Long Beach Medical Center do a group high-five after finishing a chemical attack training drill at St. Mary Medical Center on May 11, 2022. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune)
