Hospitals Rush to Treat Crash Victims

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Seconds after Monday's deadly Metro train accident, all D.C. area hospitals were put on alert for a mass casualty event.

Late Monday night, D.C. officials said 76 victims in all were transported from the crash scene. Of them, 50 were so-called "walking wounded," and of the six most serious cases, two were flown to Washington Hospital Center in Northwest D.C. to a waiting army of medical personnel.

In the moments just after the Metro crash, Washington Hospital Center had already swung into action ready to take patients. Doctors and nurses set up triage areas, donning emergency vests in response to the mass casualty alert put out by D.C. Fire and EMS, and then they waited.

Just after 6:30 p.m., almost simultaneously, the silence was broken both in the air and on the ground. A U.S. Park Police helicopter landed at Washington Hospital Center's heliport with two casualties onboard who are believed to be two of the six critical victims D.C. officials transported from the crash.

The first ambulance on the scene arrived with a male victim who appeared to be bleeding and was wisked immediately inside. Other patients appeared to be less-seriously injured-- some sitting upright on their stretchers and alert on their way into way into the hospital.

Washington Hospital Center appeared to have set up for a much larger intake of victims than the seven that arrived there. For hours after the incident, stretchers that had been brought out to the sidewalk to receive patients sat empty until they were finally brought inside.

In all, D.C. officials say of the injured, 50 were slightly injured, four suffered moderate injures and six had serious, life-threatening injuries.

As of late Thursday, no family members of any of the injured had emerged to talk to the media about the condition of their loved ones. Washington Hospital Center was set to hold a briefing on Monday night at a location near the hospital, but that briefing never took place.