AllinaComm

Busy Saturday morning for the Allina Communications team with the tragic bus crash on I-94 at Albertville. Yours truly got the first call from Allina Medical Transportation dispatch within 20 minutes of the initial 911 call. PR director David Kanihan was soon alerted as was PR manager Gloria O’Connell and Marketing Director Sonja Carlson who handled media at Mercy and Buffalo Hospitals respectively where many of the injured were taken. Gloria sent email updates much of the day including this late one about 8 p.m Saturday.

Today, Saturday, Buffalo and Mercy hospitals received a large number of patients from the bus crash. Initially, Buffalo saw nine patients, who were released. Mercy had 19, and later two more. Most were walking wounded.  However, two were admitted to Mercy: one was a 16 year old who was originally described as critical, but later upgraded to good. She had a fractured ankle and other non-life-threatening injuries. Her mother, a chaperon on the trip, was originally taken to Monticello, but was transferred to Mercy to be with her daughter. At 2 p.m., a student who was released from Monticello but later experienced symptoms, was brought to Mercy and discharged.

We had a number of media calls and media on site. Tim Burke, Sonja Carlson, David Kanihan and I gathered information and responded to media inquiries. No one involved in the crash wanted to be interviewed, but the mother at Mercy consented to releasing information about her and her daughter.

Mercy ED physician Thomas Wyatt did an interview with KARE-TV (the reporter was too stubborn to leave…the other stations were probably kicking themselves that they left).  Yours truly (who was not wanting this) was picked up on camera briefing reporters. Thanks to Mercy Security who did a good job of keeping the media outside and ED staff who devised ways to keep students and parents outside of camera range.

There will be debriefings about whether Mercy should have called an Orange Alert. I would like to give kudos to Allina Medical Transportation. Dr. Satterlee who was on the accident scene and triaged the victims did an excellent job. I have not heard of any patients who were transferred to a second hospital because of the need for additional treatment. Every patient went to the right hospitals. Mercy’s ED doctor told KARE-TV that because of the information we received from the scene, we knew what to expect and were prepared – a message I’ve been passing along to every reporter I talk to.

We’ll be collecting the media video bits for the next couple days, but here are some online now.

 

 Bus Crash-WCCO-8 a.m. (Brian Nord, AMT): Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Bus Crash-KARE11-5 p.m. (Dr. Thomas Wyatt, Mercy ED): Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Bus Crash-KSTP5-6 p.m. (Gloria O'Connell, Allina MarComm): Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Bus Crash-WCCO4-10 p.m. (Gloria O'Connell, Allina MarComm): Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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