Medics treat dozens of injured partygoers

ERIC LINDBERG
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

With a triage tent set up at Embarcadero Hall, emergency medical personnel treated and sent 40 injured revelers to the hospital during Friday and Saturday’s Halloween bash in Isla Vista.
Firefighters and search and rescue crews combed the crowds with backboards and gurneys, treating the event as a multi-casualty incident, said Nancy Lapolla, County director of emergency medical services.

After assessing injuries on a common triage scale — red for immediate need, yellow for delayed need, or green for “walking wounded” — emergency crews sent the injured off to the medical tent.
“Everyone who came to the tent was transported to the hospital,” Lapolla said. “Some needed sutures for lacerations, others had minor injuries that needed to be assessed, and others were treated for alcohol poisoning.”
During the first six hours of partying on Friday evening, medics treated 16 patients. Three others trickled in during the early morning hours, officials said. On Saturday, 21 injured subjects were transported to Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital.
Only two of those patients were admitted — one to Goleta Valley, the other to Santa
Barbara Cottage Hospital — and the remaining patients were treated and released. During last year’s Halloween celebration, medical staff treated about the same number of injured patients, but officials said the ruckus never got out of hand.
“It seemed to be calmer than the previous year for some reason,” Lapolla said.
Lapolla said the number of 911 calls from that area on a typical weekend is usually between three and five, and setting up a base of operations helped health officials prevent the emergency response system from being overwhelmed.
“It really did work well,” Lapolla said. “The system works when we kind of preplan.”
She said the event also gave medical workers the chance to test out some of their disaster communication equipment.
“It was really a collaborative effort between fire, search and rescue, American Medical Response, the Sheriff’s department and UCSB,” Lapolla said.