Seattle Fire Official Defends Choice of Transport for Shooting Victims

Oct. 29--Four students critically wounded in Friday's shootings at Marysville-Pilchuck High School were taken by ambulance to an Everett hospital rather than by helicopter to the state's premier trauma center in Seattle because it was the best treatment option, according to Marysville Fire District Chief Greg Corn.

"In this situation, ground transportation by medic unit was the fastest way to get unstable patients to the closest hospital that could provide them with the appropriate level of care," Corn said in a statement released Tuesday afternoon.

Corn's explanation came a day after questions surfaced about the decision to rush the students to Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, which was closer than Seattle's Harborview Medical Center but less equipped and experienced in handling major trauma injuries.

One of the students, Gia Soriano, 14, died Sunday and the other three remain under care, one at Providence and two who were later taken to Harborview. A fifth student, Zoe Galasso, 15, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The shooter, Jaylen Fryberg, a 15-year-old freshman, fatally shot himself at the scene.

Fire and Emergency Medical Service (EMS) supervisors, including Snohomish County EMS Medical Program Director Dr. Eric Cooper, who conducted a preliminary review of the incident, all support the transport decisions, the statement said.

At the scene, EMS personnel spoke with Providence about the patients' "condition and needs," prompting the hospital to confirm its ability to accept the patients and direct they be brought there.

Although dispatch advised the EMS personnel at the time that threemedical helicopters were available "in the Arlington area," patients were already loaded in medic units, Corn said.

"Even if the helicopters were hovering at the high school, it would have taken at least 10-15 minutes to set up a landing zone and transfer the patient to the helicopter," the statement said, an apparent reference to a report that two of the helicopters were near the campus 25 minutes after the shooting.

The time to transport the patients from the school to Providence -- a distance of about 7 1/2 miles -- ranged from 10 to 12 minutes, according to Corn, who said he was "proud of the care provided by our firefighters, as well as those from other agencies" who responded to the shooting.

Corn also released a timeline that showed the first fire dispatch occurred at 10:39a.m., followed three minutes later by the addition of a medic unit after it became known a shooting had occurred.

Airlift Northwest, the operator of the medical helicopters, was put on standby at 10:45 a.m.

Emergency workers were given clearance by law enforcement to enter the scene at 10:49, according to the timeline.

At that time, Medic 63 was at the scene, followed a minute later byMedic 61 and Medic 1.

At 10:54, an Airlift Northwest chopper in Bellingham was advised to fly; two minutes later a request was made for a second Airlift Northwest helicopter to fly from Boeing Field in Seattle.

Fire and emergency workers were told at 10:57 that Airlift Northwest had three helicopters in the nearby Arlington area, according to the timeline.

A minute later, Medic 61 left with the first patient, arriving at Providence's emergency room at 11:10.

During that period, at 11:06 a.m., Airlift Northwest was advised to stand down.

Medic 63 departed with the second patient at 11:07, arriving at Providence at 11:19.

Medic 1 left with the third patient at 11:10 a.m., arriving at the hospital at 11:20. Three minutes later, the patient was taken to Harborview, arriving at 12:01 p.m.

At 11:14, Aid 61 medic unit left the school with the fourth patient, arriving at Providence at 11:25 a.m., according to the timeline.

Another student was flown from Providence to Harborview early Friday afternoon, arriving at 2:45 p.m., according to Airlift Northwest.

Harborview, which has said it was ready with operating rooms, is a Level 1 adult and pediatric center, the only one in the state. Providence is rated as a Level 2 trauma center for adults, but has a Level 3 rating for patients under the age of 18.

Dr. Eileen Bulger, chief of trauma at Harborview Medical Center, said that she heard concerns from her staff on Friday about the two wounded teens not being brought to Harborview. She has contacted Providence requesting a debriefing in the next week to "help to look at the decision-making at the scene."

Airlift Northwest's executive director, Chris Martin, also expressed concerns.

"In a situation like this, we would absolutely believe that we would be transporting patients. We were surprised when three of our four helicopters came back empty," Martin said on Monday. "We all just thought it was so odd. Why didn't they use us?"

Terry Matsumura, battalion chief and medical-services officer for the Marysville Fire District, said he wasn't at the school Friday.

But he said that for any major incident with critically hurt patients, fire-district medics are in constant communication with the emergency room at Providence, describing injuries they are seeing with the emergency staff deciding the treatment.

"In this instance we told them the kinds of patients we had, the kinds of injuries they were and asked if they had the ability to take care of them or if they should be flown or taken to another facility," he said.

Matsumura said "that decision was made by them," referring to the emergency department at Providence.

"It sounds like they had the adequate staff to take care of these injured, so the unstable patients like this could be stabilized and if they needed further definitive care they could be safely transferred to a different facility," he said.

When medics arrived, he said, it was a "chaotic" and fast-paced scene.

Asked about the choice of taking pediatric patients to a Level 3 pediatric trauma center by air or land or a Level 1 trauma center by air, Matsumura said:

"They didn't look like what we considered pediatric patients. They looked like adults to us. We didn't know how old they were. They didn't have IDs on them. It's hard when they have these injuries, the blood.

"It's hard to make that determination that, 'yep, that's a pediatric patient, they need to go to Harborview.' "

Matsumura said getting patients to "a facility that can take care of their injuries and stabilize them" is the priority.

He added that for Marysville Fire District, Providence, not Harborview, "is the trauma center for Snohomish County."

Matsumura said he didn't know why Airlift Northwest was first alerted at 10:45 a.m., but not told to fly until 10:54 a.m.

"It could have been the time it took [medics] to get into the facility and grab all their gear and make sure the triage team has the time they need to look at these folks and determine their injuries," he said.

Information from Seattle Times archives is included in this story.Steve Miletich: 206-464-3302 or smiletich@seattletimes.com On Twitter @steve MiletichJennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com. On Twitter @seattlesullivan

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