Cal doc shot

CNN.com – Doctor shot, hospital evacuated Sep. 20, 2003

BALDWIN PARK, California (AP) — A gunman wounded a doctor at a hospital, prompting a partial evacuation of patients and medical staff and sending sheriff’s deputies on a room-to-room search of the sprawling facility.
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The victim, whose name was not released, was hit twice in the body and once in the arm, and underwent surgery at Kaiser Permanente Baldwin Park Medical Center, authorities said. He was listed in stable condition.
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The doctor was being treated in the hospital’s intensive care ward, said Los Angeles County fire Capt. Tony Duran.

The shooting apparently took place in the urology department, said hospital spokeswoman Socorro Serrano.

This is on every ER doc’s list of worries, and interestingly, it didn’t happen in the ED. For myriad reasons the vast majority of ED’s in the US are now at least somewhat secure, and waltzing in with a gun would be hard, but not impossible.

An active shooter in a hospital is a nightmare, probably at least as bad as a shooter in a school; schools actually consider security in their design, and kids, even today’s kids, can run. Oldsters in a hospital bed can’t walk, let alone run, and every hospital I’ve ever been in is a rabbit warren of halls, rooms that open into other rooms, exits and entrances that are unguarded, etc.

The havoc this would wreak on a hospital is astounding, and I feel very sorry for every single employee and doc there. And that goes double for the injured physician.

And I pray it never happens in my hospital.