The Board of Director's awarded the
National Certificate of Merit to Hospital Disaster Support Communications
System (HDSCS) based out of Orange County, Ca.
during our recent Board meeting. They
will be featured on a Discovery Channel program on 20 Feb. This was sent
out by Joe Moell K0OV our ARDF Liaison
HDSCS Participates in New TV Documentary
Members of the Hospital Disaster Support Communications System (HDSCS) of
Orange County, California have been included in tapings for a new documentary
series on the Discovery Channel. "Critical Rescue," a series of hour-long
programs featuring rescue workers and those who support them saving lives in
large and small disasters, makes its debut in February 2003. Episode 2,
titled "Fateful Journey," recounts the true story of a morning of emergency
response training in Southern California that turns into a day of real
tragedies and rescues when two trains collide. "Fateful Journey" is
scheduled for its first broadcast in prime time on 20 February.
A team from New Dominion Pictures, an independent production company under
contract to Discovery Networks, spent a half-day with HDSCS last August.
They interviewed founder and leader April Moell WA6OPS and taped reenactments
of communications that took place during the HDSCS emergency net of April 23,
2002. On that day, HDSCS members were awaiting their assignments for one of
the four large-scale disaster drills that are staged in Orange County each
year to test procedures for victim triage, dispatch, and communications. At
8:10 AM, a 6000-ton mile-long freight train struck a standing Metrolink
double-decker commuter train at a crossing in Placentia, causing three deaths
and over 200 injuries. The drill was immediately cancelled, and as fire and
police rescuers converged on the train crash scene, area hospitals braced for
the wounded passengers.
As Net Control, WA6OPS quickly deployed HDSCS members to the 14 hospitals
most likely to receive victims. There they handled countless messages,
verifying victim dispatch and patient counts, locating victims prior to
completion of the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) database, providing
hospitals with information for inquiring victim families, and communicating
with Amateur Radio operators supporting the Red Cross. Within some
hospitals, HDSCS provided direct links to handle messages between triage
areas, Emergency Departments, and Command Posts.
A total of 28 HDSCS members participated in this drill-turned-disaster, after
which they received individual recognition from the hospitals and from Orange
County Emergency Medical Services Agency. Additional HDSCS operators
videotaped or audiotaped for possible use in the Discovery program were Sam
Creason K6EW, Cheryl Simpson KD6MWZ, Ralph Swanson WB6JBI, and David Mofford
W7KTS. On other days, the producers taped reenactments of victim triage,
treatment and transport at the Placentia crash site and at least two
hospitals. It is not known how much of the HDSCS footage will appear in the
edited program.
HDSCS is a specialty group of the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES). It
was formed in 1979 with the specific mission of providing backup
communications that are critical to patient care. Since then, HDSCS has
responded following 75 communications emergencies ranging from hospital
telephone system failures to area-wide disasters such as the Laguna
Firestorm, Anaheim flood and Whittier earthquake. Regular drills with the
hospitals are important for preparedness, and HDSCS has activated for 123 of
them to date.
For its 23 years of service, HDSCS has received awards and commendations from
many hospitals and agencies, including the Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA). The most recent is the National Certificate of Merit from the
American Radio Relay League, awarded at ARRL's Board of Directors meeting on
January 17, 2003.
Scheduled airings of "Fateful Journey" are at 8 PM and 11 PM on February 20,
and at 2 PM on February 22 (Eastern and Pacific). The Discovery Channel is
one of the two most widely distributed cable networks in the United States,
with over 85 million subscribers, and is the most widely distributed
television brand in the world, reaching over 400 million households in 155
countries. New Dominion Pictures, headquartered in Suffolk, Virginia,
produces four of Discovery Channel's five highest-rated series. One of
these, "The New Detectives," is rated as the most popular series on all of
cable TV in America.
More information about HDSCS can be found at www.hdscs.org
Joe Moell K0OV
Assistant EC, HDSCS