Temple Health: Most Of Injured Passengers Have Been Or Will Be Released Wednesday
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Temple University Hospital, which treated the most injured patients from the Amtrak train derailment in Philadelphia, says it has released or will release many of those who were injured on Wednesday.
Twenty-two people remain hospitalized, eight of them in critical condition after Tuesday night's fatal train derailment.
It was all hands on deck at Temple University Hospital and as a level one trauma center, they practice once a month to prepare for this type of situation.
Fifty-four patients received treatment at Temple. Chief Medical Officer Dr. Herbert Cushing says half of them were released within a few hours.
"In general, we're doing much better. Most patients are either stable or better so that's very, very good news."
___
In a 3:30 p.m. update, Dr. Herb Cushing also shed more light on the types of injuries the passengers sustained.
"We saw a lot of rib fractures," he said. "Almost everybody had rib fractures."
Dr. Cushing said that most of the fractures were not dangerous or life-threatening.
"The rib fractures tell me that [the passengers] rattled around in the train car a lot," Dr. Cushing explained, adding that he was surprised there were not more head injuries.
Some of the remaining patients are scheduled for surgery on Thursday.
One man, James Marshall Gaines III, of Princeton, died of a chest injury overnight.
Dr. Cushing added that many of the passengers were from out of town, some from as far as Spain and Albania.
"A lot of the patients were stunned" by the crash, Cushing said. "Many expected to get off at the next stop."
Dr. Cushing praised doctors, nurses and the first responders, saying they were prepared for the test.
"We train for these things pretty regularly. Temple's a level one trauma center. It's expected to be able to respond to this sort of thing. There are regular drills in this and other types of emergencies."
KYW Newsradio's Mike Dougherty contributed to this report.
