Posted at: 11/18/2009 11:36 PM
Updated at: 11/19/2009 7:55 AM
By: Ericka Miller

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Hospitals Deal with Accident Victims

(ABC 6 NEWS) -- The charter bus crash sent ambulance crews and hospital workers into "disaster mode" as people were taken away from the scene.

The first ground ambulances arrived at Austin Medical Center just before four o'clock.

AMC staff were waiting in the drive-through ER entrance as the ambulances arrived.
    
At least half a dozen ambulances transported the injured to Austin Medical Center.

By 4:30 the first helicopters arrived to transport the most seriously injured to Saint Mary's hospital in Rochester.

At one point, security at AMC had to clear a section of the parking lot as a makeshift landing pad for a "second" helicopter.

It was a similar situation at Saint Mary's Hospital in Rochester.
    
Three people were taken from the scene of that crash by ambulance or mayo one, or transferred from other hospitals, all-critical, including the driver of the bus.

"Injuries ranged from cuts, scrapes and bruises to something as serious as major bleeding, broken ribs, fractures, bleeding inside the head, those things, blunt force injury to the abdomen," says Dr. Beth Ballinger MD, the trauma surgeon at St. Mary’s Hospital.
    
The hospital issued a code yellow to deal with the trauma, implementing their disaster plan.
    
They say their training for a situation like this is what got them through.

"So when today happened, it was relatively fresh in our minds, but I think everyone did a wonderful job," says Dr. Ballinger.

In addition to the accident along interstate 90, teams were also dealing with two other local accidents.

They tell us evaluations are still being done. No one has been released.