Lidgerwood Students Stage Mock Disaster

There was everything from a hysterical parent to a compassionate chaplain as sixth-graders from Lidgerwood Elementary feigned limb damage and illness in a mock disaster drill.

“Oh, there’s a wheelchair and there’s a bed. I want a bed,” one girl said to her friend as they waited to be called into service.

For a few hours Tuesday morning. the emergency room at Holy Family Hospital was the stage for a disaster drill, required of both the hospital and the school.

Herman Meier, a hospital administrator, said the scenario was chosen by a committee because of recent events involving schoolkids.

“They’re our neighbor. They needed to do something, too, so it worked out,” he said. “By exercising your response, when you do need it, it works very well.”

The sixth-graders, chosen for their ability to listen and follow directions, were given placards describing their injuries to place around their necks. They were evaluated at the emergency room entrance and then whisked off to various units for treatment.

“Do we have to put this ketchup on?” asked Judy Carlson, 12, who was supposed to feign a chest injury.

Parent Dave Hurard, 54, got to play the bus driver who had hypothetically suffered a heart attack and passed out while his bus collided with a truck at Division and Central.

“Oh I have crushing chest pain,” he said. “I was driving the bus, and now I’m in pain.”

The students weren’t chosen for theatrics, but some hammed it up.

“I can’t talk now, I have a flailing chest,” said Derek Jones, 11, who was lying on a stretcher in the emergency room.

Steve Steinhardt, 12, was waiting on a gurney in the ER with a bandage on one arm, a tube on the other, while he was faking abdominal pain. “I keep thinking they’re going to give me a shot or something,” he said.

Though the drill is serious and will be evaluated for ways to make improvements, the students and staff exchanged some levity.

“OK, this one’s dead,” an orderly said to 13-year-old Crystal Hays.

“Should we cut off his clothes,” another joked with a boy down the hall.

Lidgerwood Principal Chris Welch said the school was practicing its skills as well and was keeping other classes going during the drill.

Parents whose kids were in the drill would receive a telephone call reminding them of the activity. The school would keep a log on how long each contact took.

“They’ll be getting a phone call. Sometimes they aren’t home. Let’s see how long it takes to get a hold of parents,” said Welch.

Two parents also got to play roles.

Eileen Moffitt, 43, has three kids ages 15, 14 and 7 and was selected to play a hysterical parent who stormed the emergency room in an emotional burst. She was volunteering at the school office when she heard the news, according to the scenario.

“Even though it was drill and I knew it was a drill, there was a part of me that didn’t play,” she said.

“It’s easy for me to be hysterical. You wonder where your kids are.”

Brandon Bussard, 12, was standing outside waiting to be summoned to the ER. He had a different perspective.

“This is real cool,” he said. “I would probably be in math now.”

, DataTimes