Dr. Richard King found himself on an unexpected journey when an urgent call interrupted his drive home from the Central Maine Medical Center on Wednesday night. His fellow trauma surgeon had alerted him to a mass casualty event unfolding at the hospital.
Dr. King, serving as the medical director for trauma cases, promptly turned his car around, navigating Lewiston's streets with his hazard lights flashing. When he arrived, he was confronted with a harrowing scene. The emergency room was overwhelmed with injured and bleeding patients, victims of the latest mass shooting to rock an American city.
Within moments, Dr. King initiated a "damage control" surgery for one gunshot victim, swiftly halting their bleeding and working to save their life. He then moved to a different operating room to begin treatment for another patient.
Describing the situation, Dr. King said it was akin to "organized chaos" and bordered on the surreal. He emphasized that such events are frequently reported, but being part of one was a different experience entirely.
The staff at Central Maine Medical Center found themselves added to a growing list of medical professionals across various cities, from Colorado Springs, Colorado, to Highland Park, Illinois, and El Paso, Texas, who have been thrust into turmoil due to an increasing number of mass shootings in recent years.
Dr. King, speaking by phone from inside the heavily guarded hospital, underscored that the 250-bed medical center had never witnessed the aftermath of a shooting like the one in Lewiston. This tragic incident resulted in the loss of 18 lives and left more than a dozen people wounded.
Lewiston, once a textile hub, is home to approximately 38,000 residents but is the second-largest city in Maine, a state that ranks as the least violent in the nation according to the FBI.
The number of casualties in Wednesday's incident was only slightly below the average number of homicides in the entire state of Maine for an entire year.
Dr. King explained that the hospital staff had undergone training for mass casualty events and felt like the entire hospital mobilized to assist. On Thursday, eight shooting victims remained in the hospital – five in stable condition and three in critical condition.
He expressed admiration for the way the entire staff had responded, highlighting how everyone rose to the occasion. Although there is typically only one on-call surgeon after hours, over 30 surgeons were on-site within minutes of the first ambulances arriving at the hospital.
As gunshot victims continued to arrive one after another in the emergency room, concerns arose about the medical center's blood supply running low. To address this, Dr. King and other surgeons did everything they could medically to prevent excessive blood loss among patients. He credited the medical center's trauma program manager, Tammy Lachance, with quickly securing additional blood supplies from nearby hospitals.
In the aftermath of the shooting, Dr. King acknowledged that the most challenging aspect for him and his colleagues was coming to terms with the loss of life and the tragedy that had befallen Lewiston. Many staff members had loved ones and family members who were affected, making it an especially emotional and heart-wrenching experience as the initial adrenaline of treating victims waned.
With the shooter still at large on Thursday, law enforcement officers stationed outside the hospital were seen guarding entrances, armed with long guns and wearing bulletproof vests to keep onlookers at bay.
Dr. King emphasized the close-knit nature of the community, pointing out that Maine is a relatively small state where many people know each other to some extent. Therefore, this shooting had a profound impact on Lewiston and the state of Maine as a whole.
