Not a good day for a drill....

As many of you know, yesterday in Cleveland, there was a school shooting, leaving 4 in stable condition in the hospital, 1 in critical condition, and the gunman dead. I live about 2 hours from Cleveland. So, obviously, so soon after such a tragedy, there are going to be concerns.

Imagine that you are in the ER, working, and you get the following call-

"We're reporting a Columbine-like school shooting in a Kenyon College chemistry lab...multiple injuries and possible fatalities"

Such was the atmosphere in the Knox Community Hospital Emergency Room today, as the Mount Vernon High School Drama club dons make-up and new personalities for a drill.

We got to the hospital at about 11:30. We were ushered into a room, secretly, on the third floor to eat some lunch and get on some make up. The transformation was astounding (Note:If you have a weak stomach, do not look at the pictures in the below slideshow) The wounds were a little too realistic. As were some of the people's acting. Mine included. I was supposed to be (at the last moment my role changed) saturated in fluid, difficulty breathing, having helped another girl with chemical burns, and in hysterics. I start pretending to hyperventilate and then I got dizzy and my arms and legs went numb....

"Ummm....do you guys mind if I stop the hyperventilating for a while?"

"Getting dizzy?"

"Yup."

"Ok, we can just pretend that you're hyperventilating."

Thank God.



We had two people playing DOA, but one girl pretending to be a victim of a gunshot wound to the abdomen (which I didn't get a picture of, but was reeeeeeeeally gross) ended up "dying" because she wasn't treated.

Russell, who I've gone to school with since I was in kindergarten, got cast as the perpetrator. He was way too convincing. He was handcuffed and supposedly belligerent (gee, what a stretch..hahaha). He knocked stuff over and kicked things. He yelled at the doctors and nurses. He scared the snot out of me. When they brought him into the area where they were treating all of us, we all started yelling at him, and one girl (playing his girlfriend) had a mental breakdown and started sobbing uncontrollably. I was so impressed with all involved.

The doctors were all in a panic when we walked in. I'm guessing they probably thought that there had been a copy-cat shooting. Which is both good and bad. Good because we caught them by surprise, which is the basic idea, but bad because some of the people actually were really worried. I imagine there were people with family at Kenyon.