Charlottesville doctors fear more violence after car attack – NY Daily News
Charlottesville doctors fear violent white supremacists may re-emerge after shocking vehicular attack
Still rattled by their city’s deadly alt-right rally, Charlottesville doctors are bracing for a comeback of the violent white supremacists.
“There is a lot of apprehension, a lot of anger and regret that this happened in our community,” said Dr. Chris Ghaemmaghami, chief medical officer and emergency room doctor at the University of Virginia Medical Center.
“We are worried that they may come back. There are a lot of people who are having a lot of stress, primarily from our caretakers.”
Ahead of Saturday’s “Unite the Right” rally, the hospital’s doctors were gearing up for possible victims of assaults, fires and even shootings.
But they never foresaw a vehicle attack.
Ahead of Saturday’s “Unite the Right” rally, the hospital’s doctors were gearing up for possible victims of assaults, fires and even shootings.
“We were ready for casualties, person to person violence,” Ghaemmaghami said. “We were not expecting an attack using a vehicle.”
Ghaemmaghami recalled arriving at the hospital about 11:30 a.m.
The event was slated to begin at noon, but the patients began pouring in well before then.
“We were observing people hit with blunt objects, a lot of head lacerations,” said Ghaemmaghami.
“There is a lot of apprehension, a lot of anger and regret that this happened in our community,” said Dr. Chris Ghaemmaghami.
“That was early on. We were under the impression that they embarked to disperse.”
Then came the reports that a driver had plowed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters.
The harshly twenty five doctors and nurses leapt into act — converting the lobby into a triage area.
“We placed dozens of stretchers by the hospital entrance to take care of the injured,” Ghaemmaghami said. “This person had gotten into a car and it shows up intentionally drove it into people.”
Ghaemmaghami said some of the victims had severe head injuries. Others arrived with mangled limbs.
He had rushed over to supervise a team working on the most severely wounded patients when he witnessed doctors attempting to revive a youthful woman he now knows was Heather Heyer, the lone fatality.
“She came in in traumatic arrest,” Ghaemmaghami said.
“She was struck by the car directly. She was unresponsive. She died at the scene, but we attempted everything we could. She didn’t have any vitals. She was pulseless. It was very unfortunate.”
Harshly twenty five doctors and nurses leapt into activity Saturday — converting the lobby into a triage area.
Staffers, fearful of escalating violence, sealed off all of the hospital’s entrances except those reserved for ambulances.
But fortunately, the vehicle attack marked the end of the flow of patients.
“It’s one of the worst incidents we’ve ever seen,” Ghaemmaghami said. “Still, we are preparing again. We learned a lot. But we hope it doesn’t happen again.”