WE THOUGHT SCENES LIKE THESE WERE OVER
We thought scenes like these were over'
By Richard Sherriff
TWO doctors who worked throughout the night to help those worst injured spoke yesterday of their anger and frustration as the full horror of the Omagh bomb unfolded at the Royal Victoria Hospital.
Laurence Rocke and Brian McNicholl, both consultants in the accident and emergency department, struggled to cope with patients transferred from other hospitals close to blast, dealing with some of the worst injuries they had seen and trying to calm grief-stricken relatives.
Physically and mentally exhausted, they spoke of scenes that tested and found even their skills wanting as they looked after a total of 22 people transferred by ambulance and helicopter.
"They were coming in a steady stream," explained Dr Rocke who drove from his holiday in Fermanagh when he heard the news.
"We were able to deal with them more or less as they came, although because they were so serious, it takes lots of people, lots of resources and quite a lot of time to deal with them.
"We were under pressure for several hours in that sense."
By early evening the extent of the carnage caused by the blast became evident and major incident status was declared at 6pm.
"We mobilised the major incident team and contacted all the relevant doctors, nurses and administrative side," said Dr McNicholl.
"With a bomb blast everything gets injured and I suppose we have really seen every injury you can imagine at this stage.
"We've had almost every type of limb injury, tendon, nerves, blood vessels, joints, big areas of skin loss, deep cuts, puncture wounds.
"More significant injuries would be internal ones and we've had one or two bad internal organ injuries.
"We have pretty well every speciality needed to cope with any kind of trauma or injury. There were people in here representing each of those specialities and they were virtually all needed because of the range of injury."
However, despite the best efforts of all the staff, one woman died shortly after she arrived at the Royal.
Several more were transferred to other Belfast hospitals for more specialised treatment and both men predicted others might yet succumb to their injuries.
"The first arrived at about 6.20pm and between then and about 11pm we had about 18 or 19 patients through. Most of them were critical or serious," added Dr McNicholl.
"The lady who died had internal organ damage and unfortunately bled to death and we were unable to resuscitate her," said Dr Rocke.
"I'm not sure that I've ever seen an incident where so many people have come to us so badly injured, and if we were stretched here and under pressure here, it must have been just unbelievable down in Omagh."
The Royal Victoria serves as the trauma centre for the whole of Northern Ireland, and after the most violent years of the troubles, Dr Rocke agreed that he and his colleagues had hoped to Saturday's scenes were behind them. "You always hope that every time it happens. You don't feel much to be honest. Things happen quite quickly and you just have to get stuck in and do it.
"People are in life-threatening situations and you've got to deal with that and deal with them."
The pressure is no less when explaining what's going on to bewildered loved ones.
"That is the hardest part of the job," said Dr McNicholl. "A lot of the time, people come to you injured, you resuscitate them and they're starting to get better.
"But when you're meeting relatives who don't know what has happened and they're coming here full of hope and expectation, and you have to tell their loved one is dead, that is absolutely terrible. "Up on the wards, there are people looking very, very distraught and waiting from moment to moment for good news or bad news."
But even if that news is what relatives have prayed for, few people who leave the Royal in the days and weeks ahead will recover completely.
I don't know about this concept of good or bad, said Dr Rocke.
"Most of the people we saw had very serious, life-threatening, critical injuries from major burns to major head injuries.
"All of those people are going to be seriously disfigured and many of them will be significantly disabled.
"For some there is still significant doubt as to whether or not they're going to survive.
"In that context you have to say there is no good news."
By Richard Sherriff
TWO doctors who worked throughout the night to help those worst injured spoke yesterday of their anger and frustration as the full horror of the Omagh bomb unfolded at the Royal Victoria Hospital.
Laurence Rocke and Brian McNicholl, both consultants in the accident and emergency department, struggled to cope with patients transferred from other hospitals close to blast, dealing with some of the worst injuries they had seen and trying to calm grief-stricken relatives.
Physically and mentally exhausted, they spoke of scenes that tested and found even their skills wanting as they looked after a total of 22 people transferred by ambulance and helicopter.
"They were coming in a steady stream," explained Dr Rocke who drove from his holiday in Fermanagh when he heard the news.
"We were able to deal with them more or less as they came, although because they were so serious, it takes lots of people, lots of resources and quite a lot of time to deal with them.
"We were under pressure for several hours in that sense."
By early evening the extent of the carnage caused by the blast became evident and major incident status was declared at 6pm.
"We mobilised the major incident team and contacted all the relevant doctors, nurses and administrative side," said Dr McNicholl.
"With a bomb blast everything gets injured and I suppose we have really seen every injury you can imagine at this stage.
"We've had almost every type of limb injury, tendon, nerves, blood vessels, joints, big areas of skin loss, deep cuts, puncture wounds.
"More significant injuries would be internal ones and we've had one or two bad internal organ injuries.
"We have pretty well every speciality needed to cope with any kind of trauma or injury. There were people in here representing each of those specialities and they were virtually all needed because of the range of injury."
However, despite the best efforts of all the staff, one woman died shortly after she arrived at the Royal.
Several more were transferred to other Belfast hospitals for more specialised treatment and both men predicted others might yet succumb to their injuries.
"The first arrived at about 6.20pm and between then and about 11pm we had about 18 or 19 patients through. Most of them were critical or serious," added Dr McNicholl.
"The lady who died had internal organ damage and unfortunately bled to death and we were unable to resuscitate her," said Dr Rocke.
"I'm not sure that I've ever seen an incident where so many people have come to us so badly injured, and if we were stretched here and under pressure here, it must have been just unbelievable down in Omagh."
The Royal Victoria serves as the trauma centre for the whole of Northern Ireland, and after the most violent years of the troubles, Dr Rocke agreed that he and his colleagues had hoped to Saturday's scenes were behind them. "You always hope that every time it happens. You don't feel much to be honest. Things happen quite quickly and you just have to get stuck in and do it.
"People are in life-threatening situations and you've got to deal with that and deal with them."
The pressure is no less when explaining what's going on to bewildered loved ones.
"That is the hardest part of the job," said Dr McNicholl. "A lot of the time, people come to you injured, you resuscitate them and they're starting to get better.
"But when you're meeting relatives who don't know what has happened and they're coming here full of hope and expectation, and you have to tell their loved one is dead, that is absolutely terrible. "Up on the wards, there are people looking very, very distraught and waiting from moment to moment for good news or bad news."
But even if that news is what relatives have prayed for, few people who leave the Royal in the days and weeks ahead will recover completely.
I don't know about this concept of good or bad, said Dr Rocke.
"Most of the people we saw had very serious, life-threatening, critical injuries from major burns to major head injuries.
"All of those people are going to be seriously disfigured and many of them will be significantly disabled.
"For some there is still significant doubt as to whether or not they're going to survive.
"In that context you have to say there is no good news."
Further Information
Publisher: NEWS LETTER
Ref: NL/031
Published Date: 17-Aug-98
Related Images
