LEWISTON, Maine — Every year, the Maine Hospital Association presents its Caregiver of the Year award to a medical professional who goes above and beyond for his or her patients.
This year, the award is going to a group rather than an individual.
During a ceremony at the Samoset Resort in Rockport on Wednesday night, the association honored Central Maine Medical Center’s Trauma Response Team for their life-saving work in the aftermath of the Lewiston mass shooting.
On Oct. 25, the first emergency calls started coming in at 6:56 p.m. The first patient arrived at CMMC less than 30 minutes later.
Within 45 minutes, a total of 15 injured patients were transported to the emergency department, some with critical injuries.
Leaders at the hospital quickly assembled a large team of surgeons with expertise in orthopedics, cardiovascular, thoracic, colorectal, urologic, plastic, and general surgery. They were aided by more than 100 nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and other health care professionals throughout the Central Maine Healthcare organization.
As chaotic as it sounds, those working at the hospital that night say it was anything but.
"It was eerily quiet," Anne Howe, lead nurse in the emergency department, said. "And that is a testament to our training, because when it is chaotic like that, we get quiet and our skills kick in."
CMMC President and CEO Steve Littleson said the hospital undergoes regular training to prepare.
"We train for trauma events and mass casualty events quite regularly," Littleson said. "In fact, we just conducted a tabletop drill a little bit before Oct. 25."
The difference between a drill and a real-life situation, however, is the emotions involved.
"We had team members who lost loved ones, and we had to support them," Littleson said. "And then we had team members who cared for really critically-injured patients, and many of them don't typically do that. We certainly support them and recovery from that experience.”
Littleson said administration very quickly mobilized counselors, and some of them are still available to staff to this day.
Most of the patients who were admitted that night were discharged within the first few weeks following the incident. Three of them, however, had an extended stay in the ICU because of their extensive injuries and the multiple complicated surgeries they required.
Each time one of the final three patients was discharged, CMMC team members lined the halls leading to the main entrance as a symbol of solidarity and to wish the patients well.
In presenting the Caregiver of the Year Award, Maine Hospital Association President Steven Michaud said this of the CMMC team: "We honor them for their compassion, high level of expertise caring for patients under extraordinary circumstances, tremendous teamwork, and unwavering support they continue to show for one another and their community as they move forward."
"We are all proud of what we were able to accomplish, the care we were able to provide not just that night, but in the days and months afterward," Littleson said. "As you know, the last patient left three days before Christmas, so it was an extended period of time and I think we did a good job and deserve to be proud of the care we provided."