Biomedical science staff help save lives

Manchester. Westminster. London Bridge. Grenfell Tower. These critical incidents have been some of the most widely publicised emergency situations in the UK’s history, taking place in the space of just 84 days. But how much is known about the work of biomedical scientists involved in these events?

Based in laboratories, or alongside doctors and nurses in A&E, they worked tirelessly to help save the victims of these tragedies. Without gaining the headlines or same levels of recognition of the frontline emergency service workers, their contributions have been instrumental in saving lives.

We spoke to three biomedical scientists involved to find out how they were prepared, what training they had had and how it helped them, how they had coped in the real life situations and what lessons could be learnt from each critical incident.

Manchester

Staff undergo extensive training to respond to critical incidents, but as every incident is different, the planning and training has to reflect this and encourage flexibility. Haematology and Blood Bank Manager Deborah Seddon was working at Salford Royal Foundation Trust the night of 22 May when the call came in.

A suicide bomb had exploded at the Manchester Arena as people were leaving an Ariana Grande concert, many victims were families with young children.

 “My sister had heard about the bomb and phoned me. My niece was there, but we found out she was safe quite quickly. On the night, it was my job to start calling staff to come in. You have to check the stock levels, but there’s no set level of how much you’ll need. We were informed of the situation and had to act fast.

Rather than risk blood stock dwindling during a major incident, a member of support staff or a medical laboratory assistant is on hand to keep ‘typing up’ the blood and order new supplies. We ordered extra blood for the patients and two of us (myself and Eva Loutraris, our blood transfusion lab manager) went down to A&E. Being in A&E we were very aware of how many patients were critical if we ran out of O negative (the universal blood type donor), it’s time the patients did not have.

It’s rarely recognised what biomedical scientists do and we’re often taken for granted. But it’s widely accepted that transfusions played a major role in the Manchester incident. We helped save two lives.”

Asked if she had any advice for biomedical science staff likely to be called into a critical incident, Deborah said:
“Make sure you know all the contact numbers for your team. There is the potential during a terrorist attack that mobile networks could be disabled, so look for other forms of communication. Be aware that the hospital will be put on lockdown, and this will restrict access.

I never thought I’d have been in a situation where I was exposed to what I saw on that night. But the A&E team were absolutely inspirational, so focused, so calm. We played a crucial role to what went on there. I think being prepared is essential and a cohesive team can work well together. I’m fortunate that the team is really supportive, and all the systems are in place here. The way the emergency services responded in Manchester is reassuring for the public.”

It is clear from Deborah’s description that the major incident protocols and training for staff was essential when faced with critical events like this. The NHS staff who were part of the response to the Manchester Arena bombing were honoured for their service at the recent HSJ patient safety awards.

London Bridge

Senior Biomedical Scientist Saidat Turawa and Specialist Biomedical Scientist Shazia Akhtar at St Thomas’ Hospital spoke about their experience working in the Blood Transfusion and Haematology Laboratory on the night of the London Bridge incident.

“If an incident happens in the day it’s very different. You don’t have that same support network at night that you’d have during the day. But this happened on a Saturday night, when there were just three of us. We started our 12-hour shift at 9pm. Our haematology registrar was looking at a patient’s results when his beeper went off saying there was a major incident. We quickly checked the internet and we saw there had been an attack and knew straight away something serious had happened.

The registrar hurried down to A&E to alert them and then came back to tell me how many patients we were expecting to come in, and that gave me an idea of how many products I’d need to start getting ready. We have a major incident protocol and action cards that tell us what we need to do step-by-step. I knew I had to start preparing the red cells and the plasma, and make sure we defrosted the blood, which can take up to 45 minutes to prepare.

We had some blood already defrosted but not enough. While I set to work on defrosting the blood, my colleague Shazia prepared the incident trolley, getting it ready for the products to go down to A&E. At the same time we had to start calling the biomedical scientists and let them know that we might need some help. We have a bronze commander; a Biomedical Scientist who works in coagulation and during situations like this they’ll sort out phone calls for us, and keep us updated on what’s happening. It’s a matter of preparing the product, getting it ready, and then staying in constant communication with the doctors and nurses. The rest of the hospital began to lock down and reroute all new non-emergency patients to other hospitals.

When an emergency happens, your training just kicks in, you know what you have to do. Afterwards, when you’re struggling with the impact of what you’ve just been involved in, it felt very sombre. I went down to casualty and trauma and you could feel it. It was so real. It stayed with us for a while, but it’s something you could share with other biomedical staff and say, this has happened now and there are lots of things we can learn.

I would suggest team members familiarise themselves with the protocols. Now we’re even more prepared. And that’s why we want to make sure that anyone else who might be in that situation will feel prepared as well. If we hadn’t been given the training that we’d been given, we wouldn’t have been ready for that. Because of the intense pressure and demand, you don’t have time to think. You’ve got to know what you’re doing, you’ve got to act.”

When asked about advice she would give to biomedical science staff involved in a critical incident Saidat commented:
“I would say to never underestimate your role. In just one phone call, one bleep, everything can change. It’s always at the forefront of our minds now. And that’s what you take away. You’ve always got to be ready.”

We would like to express our heartfelt thanks and appreciation to everyone who responded in the aftermath of these critical incidents. These experiences show the dedication, professionalism and critical attention of biomedical scientists and support staff working behind the scenes, give to saving lives.

More information about the events in London and Manchester and the roles played by our members will be published in August’s The Biomedical Scientist magazine.