Massacre at the mosque of Québec: confusion in emergencies

Photo archives Agence QMI
Six men died by bullets on January 29, 2017 at the great mosque of Quebec. Several people were injured.

Nicolas Lachance

Wednesday, 24 January 2018 00:00

UPDATE
Wednesday, 24 January 2018 00:00

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Contrary to what has been said after the massacre at the mosque of Quebec that has six deaths, the “code orange” has never been deployed in hospitals, leading to problems of communication. Since, this system, used to announce a massive influx of wounded, has been reviewed.

The slaughter mass of 29 January 2017 at the grand mosque was the first tragedy of its kind to occur in Quebec since the shooting at the national Assembly in 1984. The local stakeholders did not have cue points, compared to Montreal, for example, who lived the tragedy of the Polytechnique and Dawson.

When the media began to speak of the shooting, the confusion in the emergency room of the region. No one really knew in what hospitals would be routed to the injured or how many there were.

Pierre-Patrick Dupont, director of the emergencies of the hospital

Communications between the RCMP, the Sûreté du Québec, the Service de police de la Ville de Québec, ambulance and civil security regional have been difficult at times, admitted in an interview to Pierre-Patrick Dupont, the director of emergencies of the hospital.

Relatives of the victims have been directed to the wrong emergency, which has created a lot of confusion. In the hospitals of the CHU, the message between the departments was jarring. “Everyone had good ideas, but not in the channels of communication “, says Mr. Dupont.

No code

The CHU has never triggered the “code orange” based on the information at its disposal. The tragedy has six deaths and five serious injuries. About 15 other witnesses of the scene were also transported to the emergency room to receive minor care.

Mr. Dupont stated that he was not “abnormal” to receive five serious injuries at the hospital of the Child Jesus, the place that usually receives the traumas of the great region. “It is accustomed “, pleaded he.

Although all the wounded have been rescued and that the deadline to receive these people in the operating room have been met, the situation could degenerate.

Improvement

Since the killing, the emergency plan has been improved. The CHU has named Dr. Julien Clement to the position of team leader of the trauma. When there will be events of this type, the “code orange” will be deployed and Mr. Clement, who has served in Afghanistan, will be the conductor.

In addition, the emergency may initiate a code orange level 1, and this, without being obliged to obtain the approval of the management.

Moreover, the new code orange was put into action during a pile-up on the 28th of last December in the Laurentides wildlife reserve.

Paramedics better prepared

The Cooperative of ambulance technicians in Québec (CTAQ), which was on the front line on the night of the killing, has made changes to improve the service in the event of mass.

In particular, they have added a support vehicle operations and equipment replacement.

“We learned a lot this evening,” said David Munger, supervisor at the Cooperative of ambulance technicians in Québec (CTAQ). It was the first link in the chain and it has not broken. “

WHAT IS A “CODE ORANGE” ?

• “A code orange is a signal recognized by all the hospitals in Quebec and elsewhere, serving to announce a catastrophe or external emergency that may be multiple victims. “(Source : MUHC)
• He announces receiving massive injuries.
• All the teams of the hospitals of one region must be mobilized, whether in the emergency, operating rooms, radiology, psychological care, etc
• The material is transported near the door.
• Emergencies must be ready to accept casualties in large numbers and to mount them to the operating room quickly.
• Operating rooms must be vacated.

REACTIONS

“We’ve done a post-mortem of any of it in our emergency room. And, from there, there are things that have come from the staff, such as communications. Why it had not triggered the code orange ? And why the people were not identified ? In the light of all that, it is said that there are things that we needed to change. We did our homework and it has been a few months since hired a doctor to manage these situations. “

— Pierre-Patrick Dupont, director of the emergencies of the hospital

Dr. Julien Clément

“Most of the mechanisms of rescue of life code orange have been put in place like that, by initiative of the world by common sense. But, in intrahospitalier, there has been communication problems. It meant we had to rebuild completely the procedures of the code orange. […] But part of the triage pre-hospital a very well. It had been redone two years ago and it was the first time with the shooting at the mosque that she was tested. Before, we brought people to the nearest hospital. “

— Dr. Julien Clément, medical director of the trauma program at CHU

David Munger

“On the security front, if it was to do over again, we probably would have asked our employees to move away from the mosque for not being up to the view of the shooter. If the shooter had still been active, he would have been able to shoot us. “

— David Munger, supervisor, paramedic