GRETNA, Neb (KMTV) — In a field just south of Gretna was a chaotic scene.
A simulation that included bodies strewn across the field, cars flipped over, and victims with gruesome injuries waiting for treatment.
“Today we are on a disaster drill, looking at multiple agencies, multiple patients and simulate what the response would look like in a real-world disaster,” said Jason Langenfeld, MD, the UNMC emergency medicine simulation director.
Students and UNMC residents teamed up with Gretna firefighters for the exercise and were thrown head-first into the simulated disaster.
They had to overcome simulated obstacles, prepare patients for transport and triage those who needed urgent care.
“We do see similar types of things in the emergency department setting but that’s a much more controlled environment where we are familiar and know where things are. We have a lot more resources in the emergency department we have a lot more support staff. Out here in a realistic setting, we are in the wilderness and you don’t have all of your supplies,” said Tristen Zimmerman, a second-year emergency medicine resident at UNMC.
Zimmerman was one of the students getting hands-on treatment for some of the gruesome simulated injuries found on the scene.
It was a chance for her to get out of the emergency room and out into the field and an up-close look at what her training could do for people in a worst-case scenario.
“I always knew I wanted to be a doctor in the emergency department. It’s always exciting and things are changing every day. I am drawn to that and this is a prime example of the exciting environment I like to be in,” Tristen Zimmerman,
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