Mock terror attack: Operation Mountain Guardian

Denver Metro and Front Range first-responders held a drill today simulating a terrorist attack. I don't really know many details, aside from what's included in this Denver Post article, but I do know that the University of Colorado Hospital participated in the drill, receiving the "wounded," which consisted of actors and actresses as well as dummies. Being in the Emergency Department, I became an accidental participant. The idea was to test the capacity of the ED to handle multiple seriously injured patients at once.

Contrary to what would happen in real life, the attending physicians were facilitating the exercise with the senior residents at the heads of the beds and the medical students assisting. I put a tourniquet on the stump of a dummy's severed arm and bagged another dummy patient; my classmate did CPR and successfully "revived" another dummy patient.

This was a fun exercise and interesting in terms of putting into perspective the role of the ED within the larger first-responder infrastructure.