But on the morning of Nov.5, Baker heard on his home scanner about a shooting near the church. Concerned, Baker got into his “porcupine-looking” truck and headed to the church.
What he found was chaos.
“I wasn’t prepared for what I was about to see, to say the least,” he said.
Baker was one of the first responders to arrive at the shooting at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, where 26 people were killed during a Sunday service.
Baker was one of six panelists who spoke during the Mid Coast Hurricane and Disaster Conference on Thursday at the Victoria Community Center. Each panelist was a first responder involved with the Sutherland Springs aftermath.
The message the panelists reiterated during the morning discussion was preparedness. Every first responding agency from volunteer fire departments to bystanders needs to be prepared for emergency situations, they said.
Dr. Mark Muir, the trauma director at University Hospital in San Antonio, where several of the gunshot victims were sent, said a 6-year-old boy with a serious gunshot wound to his arm was able to live because someone acted and treated the child quickly.
“I still don’t know whether it was a bystander or an EMS personnel who did it, but within minutes, he had a tourniquet placed. And that tourniquet very likely saved his life,” Muir said. “I have no doubt he would not have made it to the hospital had it not been for that tourniquet.”
Muir told attendees that anyone could possibly save a life and could help while waiting for first responders to arrive. The conference had several “Stop the Bleed, Save a Life” sessions to provide training to help render aid before professional rescuers arrive.
“Turning bystanders, folks at church, folks at the gas station across the street into lifesavers,” is the goal of the first responder training available to community members, he said.
The time for thinking a disastrous event will never happen in a small community is over, said Eric Epley, the executive director at Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council.
“I’m not going to say that it might happen — you need to leave today understanding that it will happen in your community. When you decide that it will happen in your community, it shifts your mindset,” he said.
The challenge immediately following an emergency is time, he said. All first responders should be aware of all assets and medical agencies locally available and notify the agencies as soon as possible in an emergency.
The first wave of victims were first taken to Connally Memorial Medical Center in Floresville, a town about 14 miles away from Sutherland Springs. Most of the gunshot victims were taken to San Antonio hospitals that were up to 44 miles away from the church.
“It’s not going to be minutes to get to a hospital,” Epley said of rural settings. “These things need to get started early and notify as many people as you can because the distances will eat you alive.”
Epley also said every first responder, as well as medical professionals, should always have a tourniquet near them. A tourniquet is a device for stopping the flow of blood through a vein or artery.
Kyle Coleman, the emergency management coordinator for Bexar County, said first responders had to deal with several challenges with the Sutherland Springs shootings. The unincorporated town of about 600 hardly had any street lights, he said, and lights had to be brought in.
Crowds of people, from out-of-town media to those who wanted to pay their respects to the victims of the massacre, were also something those on the scene had to deal with, he said.
Lt. Troy Wilson, with the Texas Rangers, said he worked in several emergency situations such as shootings that took place in 2009 and 2014 in Fort Hood and the Sutherland Springs shooting. Situations like this will happen, he said.
“The best thing that can happen here is that we start a conversation,” he said.
Amber Aldaco reports on regional counties for the Victoria Advocate. She may be reached at aaldaco@vicad.com or 361-580-6303.
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