CHRISTUS St. Frances Cabrini Hospital holds emergency preparedness training for an active shooting

ALEXANDRIA, La. (KALB) - An active shooter: a situation no one ever wants to experience, but one that first responders have to always be prepared for.

The medical staff over at CHRISTUS St. Frances Cabrini Hospital went through emergency preparedness training to know what to do in the event of a mass shooting occurring in our local community resulting in multiple injuries and casualties.

“The process is you just have to think on your feet pretty quickly and make things happen,” said Monte Wilson, the President of Cabrini Hospital. “If you’ve been through the drill, you’re not worried about what to do now. You should know, and that’s how we prepare our staff to make sure.”

The hospital was put on alert as the mock shooting took place. Fake patients, dressed up with makeup to look like gunshot injuries, were taken to emergency rooms and the surgical center where they were evaluated and treated in real-time by doctors and nurses.

“We try to make sure we go through the processes to make sure we have everything in place in case that does happen,” said Wilson. “What you don’t want to happen is an event takes place and our staff is not prepared to be able to react in an expedited way to be able to take care of the community.”

The annual emergency training for the hospital comes just a month after the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas that claimed the life of 19 students and two teachers.

The medical team attended to different scenarios including how to respond to a victim suffering from gunshot wounds and how to keep family members informed on the health status of their relative.

Wilson said the goal is to not only have a plan in place but to have the staff fully prepared to be able to respond.

“When you get into the mock event and go through everything that you have on paper, you find out where there are gaps and things that you need to put in place,” said Wilson.

In previous years, Cabrini Hospital has taken part in drills to help with other crisis situations including natural disasters.

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