Newswise — In the hours immediately following the worst mass shooting in American history, a group of neighboring students, faculty, and administrators sprang into action to assist those in need, from the most grievously injured to the simply stunned student body at Virginia Tech.
Nestled on the edge of the Virginia Tech campus lies the Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM). While separate institutions, VCOM and Virginia Tech operate as collaborative partners in research and VCOM services including the use of the Virginia Tech campus and facilities. VCOM serves as academic home to many of the first responders, emergency room and surgical staff, and family counselors who made it their business to ensure that victims, family members, police officers, and EMS crews all were as well cared for as possible in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings.
And, according to VCOM Dean and Vice President Dixie Tooke-Rawlins, D.O., this group of unsung heroes was highly successful. The biggest testament to their success? According to Dr. Tooke-Rawlins, "the people who could have survived did survive." Because of the highly skilled medical care the injured received by VCOM faculty and students who cared for patients in the local emergency rooms and surgical staff. Every person who was transported to one of the area's four hospitals survived their wounds but one, and Dr. Tooke-Rawlins says that individual essentially was not salvageable at the time of transport.
Dr. Tooke-Rawlins recounted her own involvement with the victims' families, saying that she and two other VCOM doctors spent more than 24 hours with family members holed up at the Inn on the Virginia Tech Campus, waiting with them for word of their loved ones' status, providing what comfort they could, and in some cases being the ones to break the worst news possible.
Immediately following the shootings, families who could not reach their loved ones by phone converged on the Virginia Tech campus and were guided to the Inn to await word regarding the missing. Over the course of the next 12 hours, many family members left the Inn, as word trickled in regarding which unaccounted for students and staff had turned up unharmed and who had been hospitalized. The task of identifying bodies took far longer, and by the next morning, the only individuals remaining at the Inn were the families awaiting confirmation that their loved ones had perished in the attack. "It was a very painful day for all the families watching each other find out, and waiting to find out themselves," said Dr. Tooke-Rawlins. Their ordeal on campus did not end that day. Once the bodies were identified, they were not released to families until up to three days later.
Meanwhile, the VCOM students and staff had organized to assist in other ways. Many students put together food baskets for the victims' families, for the police, and for the emergency medical services crews. More than 200 students, staff, and local community members attended Red Cross grief counseling training and spent untold hours walking the campus and talking with students. VCOM hosted osteopathic manipulative medicine (OMM) clinics each night to treat exhausted police and other emergency personnel. "Stress gives you a lot of muscular skeletal problems," said Tooke-Rawlins, "so we've been offering these clinics every night. It's been great, because a lot of those we treated had never experienced OMM before. They were very impressed by how much it helped them."
Regarding the media coverage of the shooting, Dr. Tooke-Rawlins said far too little attention had been given to what she called "the loss of the huge potential of what the victims would have and should have become."
Still, she says there are lessons to glean from the tragedy, the most important of which is that college officials around the country should step back and review all of their procedures and policies to ensure they are prepared, or as prepared as anyone can be, should such an event happen on their campus some day.
From the university administration, to the campus police, to her own college's staff and faculty, Dr. Tooke-Rawlins said that everyone was tremendous. "They did an extraordinary job."
The Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine enrolled its inaugural group of students in August 2003 and will graduate its first class June 2, 2007. The mission of the college is to prepare osteopathic primary care physicians to serve the rural and medically underserved areas of Virginia, North Carolina and the remaining Appalachian region and to provide scientific research that will improve the health of all humans. For more information about VCOM: http://www.vcom.vt.edu.
The Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine is a member of the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM). Founded in 1894, AACOM promotes excellence in osteopathic medical education, in research and in service, and fosters innovation and quality among osteopathic colleges to improve the health of the American public. For more information about AACOM: http://www.aacom.org.
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