LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Like many people at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, Dr. Chris Fisher didn’t know exactly what he was walking into on October first, 2017.
“As I pulled in towards our old adult ER there were ambulances and police cars and private vehicles everywhere, running patients into the front of the ER. And oh my God, something really big has happened,” said Fisher.
FOX5 News sat down with Sunrise Hospital staff this week to discuss the eight-year anniversary of the 2017 Route 91 Harvest Festival mass shooting on the Las Vegas Strip.
Doctor Fisher’s first patient was ready to be operated on when he arrived. The doctor received only a little background information on the man’s gunshot wounds. He had abdominal and multiple intestinal injuries. That surgery lasted about two and a half hours.
“Operated on him and kept operating from about 10pm until about 5am. I did about five straight cases I believe,” said Dr. Fisher.
Doctor Fisher performed seven surgeries in all, working 24 straight hours. All of the people Dr. Fisher operated on survived. He was one of 100 doctors who came in, along with 200 nurses.
“There were so many nurses there it was basically like a one-to-one ratio with the patients that were there. So, it was really, really neat to see that response from everyone,” said Dr. Clarence Dunagan.
Doctor Clarence Dunagan, Emergency Department Chairman of MountainView Hospital, came over from MountainView hospital, which saw a handful of patients. But the hospital had plenty of staff to handle them, so Dr. Dunagan went to help his colleagues at Sunrise Hospital.
Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center officials say 14 people were deceased when they were brought in. Two people later died at the hospital. Officials say there were 125 gunshot victims. Staff performed 58 surgeries in the first 24 hours, 87 in all. Staff treated more than 250 people.
“So, as we think about One October and right before the shooting, the hospital was full. Our emergency department was full. We continued, even in the midst of the tragedy of One October, we were still receiving transfers from other hospitals whose patients needed a higher level of care that Sunrise Hospital could provide,” said Sunrise Hospital CEO Todd Sklamberg.
In fact, Sklamberg says the ER treated two shooting patients who were not connected to the Route 91 Harvest Festival mass shooting.
Dr. Jeffrey Murawsky was in charge of coordinating the medical care at Sunrise Hospital during One October. He spent two straight days there. FOX5 asked him to reflect on the shooting once he was home and got some rest.
“First thought was, how is everybody? How are the 125 gunshot wounds and the 250 people? Where is everybody? How’s everyone doing? Are they okay? And then it was really about, okay, are the staff okay? This was traumatic for all of them. And we brought in a lot of resources to just to talk to our staff to help them deal with their second victim status because they’re victims too of this mass casualty, because they had to treat those folks that were there. And whether that’s a difficult moment looking at bloody cowboy boots or, you know, the stained floor that gets you every time, those things mattered. And we had to be there for our team,” said Dr. Murawsky.
Hospital officials say patients return to Sunrise Hospital each October to thank staff for the care they received.
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