Local Hospitals Continue To Treat Those Wounded In Amtrak Derailment
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Several area hospitals have released updates on the status of the injured Amtrak passengers.
Temple University Hospital says nine Amtrak train derailment passengers remain in their care on Friday, down from 12 earlier in the day. That number increased due to one patient being transferred to Temple from another hospital. Five of those patients are in critical condition.
Meanwhile, two patients said to be in "good" condition are at Einstein, and three patients -- two critical, one serious -- are at Aria Torresdale Hospital.
Penn has two patients, one in critical condition and one in fair condition.
Temple Hospital was ground zero for patients from the derailment. The already busy emergency department got an extra 54 patients.
"We at Temple don't say no to any patient that comes into our emergency room," said Dr. Amy Goldberg.
Dr. Amy Goldberg, the Chief of trauma says many of the patients, including one who died, were badly injured.
Teams were prepared having practiced in mass casualty drills.
"Patients were in constant movement from the trauma bays to the CAT scanners. From the CAT scanners back to the emergency room. In the emergency room patients were then brought into the trauma bays," said Dr. Goldberg.
There was team work and dedication. Hospital employees knew it was all hands on deck.
"People came in, no calls were made to bring people in, people came," said Dr. Larry Kaiser.
Along with the medical treatments, the hospital was working to identify patients, get in touch with families and provide some old fashioned comfort.
"We made sure that there was a physician and a nurse with every single patient so as not to leave anybody alone and that the patients always had somebody that was with them, that could talk to them help take care of them," said Dr. Goldberg.
On Friday, the first of the funerals for the victims of the derailment was held in New York on Friday. Justin Zemser, a U.S. Naval Academy midshipman, died in the crash along with seven others.
The train's engineer, Brandon Bostian, initially declined to speak to investigators, but on Friday, his lawyer said he'd agreed to be interviewed by the NTSB.
An investigation into the derailment is ongoing.