The Inauguration of Barack Obama | January 20, 2009 | Expanded multimedia coverage

Keith Weller, Gannett Healthcare Group

Registered nurse Coleen DeFlorimonte-Lucas is one of many volunteer nurses and physicians who will be providing first aid to the Inauguration Day crowd.

Volunteers ready to tackle scrapes to shrapnel

CATHRYN DOMROSE, Gannett Healthcare Group

January 12, 2009 |

WASHINGTON -- The moment Coleen DeFlorimonte-Lucas heard about the need for health care workers on Inauguration Day, she called to volunteer.

As an African American, she is proud that Barack Obama will be president. As a 22-year Washington resident, she wants the millions of visitors to her city to enjoy themselves. And as a a member of the Medical Reserve Corps, she wants above all to keep everyone safe.

"We've never had this kind of a celebration before," says the coordinator at Woodson Adolescent Wellness Center, a school-based nursing clinic in the nation's capital.

On Jan. 20, she will be part of a cadre of health care volunteers -- some two-thirds of them nurses -- patrolling the grounds and manning aid stations to give care and be ready in case of an attack or other public health emergency.

"This is a labor of love," says Dorothy Lowry, medical planner for the city health department's Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Administration who is coordinating the health care volunteers.

"They're going to the inauguration, but instead of staying in a hotel and hanging out, they are contributing their skill set. I think that's amazing," she says.

Nurses from all over the country offered their services for the inauguration, but most of the more than 400 volunteers come from the District of Columbia's Medical Reserve Corp, Lowry says.

The district's health department will be working with the National Park Service, Department of Health and Human Services, Defense Department, Red Cross and other state and federal agencies to provide health care on the National Mall, along the inaugural parade route and at inaugural balls in the area.

The health department will be solely responsible for health care along the parade route. Stations will consist of tents or vans with cots for patients who need them.

Each will be staffed with a physician, physician's assistant or nurse practitioner; two nurses; and administrative support staff. Roving teams also will patrol the crowds around each station, scanning for people who may need medical attention.

Aid stations will offer care that includes rapid assessment, triage and limited interventions, such as bandaging wounds and basic first aid, Lowry says. Health workers will coordinate with fire and ambulance services to get those with major medical problems to a hospital.

Many of the volunteer nurses have emergency department and critical-care experience, Lowry says.

The city's mayor has predicted as many as 4 million people will attend Obama's inauguration. Many believe attendance will far exceed the previous record of 1.2 million at President Lyndon B. Johnson's inauguration in 1965.

With a crowd so large and so many unknowns, health care workers must be prepared for anything from hypothermia to mass casualties.

"We need to be able to throw whatever we've got at whatever happens," Lowry says. "If you plan for a specific thing, you're going to be wrong 99 percent of the time."

The District of Columbia hosts many special events, and workers from police officers to garbage collectors are used to dealing with large crowds.

DeFlorimonte-Lucas, who has worked during previous celebrations, including Fourth of July on the Mall, says most of what she has treated on those occasions have been minor.

"I think the most important thing is that we're there in case we're needed," she says.

Lowry also has experience with crowds. She worked at the U.S. embassy in Kuwait for two years before taking her current job. In Kuwait, she coordinated health care for crowds who came to see President George Bush and first lady Laura Bush.

All inaugural health care volunteers must attend training sessions to help them understand security needs and hazards, how things might move from a normal to a "threat state," and what to do in a mass-casualty situation, Lowry says.

"You'd be stupid if you weren't somewhat nervous, but it's kind of like stage fright," Lowry says. "It's a lot of people, but you've got many people who are so committed to this coming together for this historic moment in time. I feel really good about it."

DeFlorimonte-Lucas, who says her husband probably will record the inauguration for her to watch when she gets home, insisted she's not nervous at all.

"I think it's because I'm going to focus on the event as being peaceful, fun, exciting and happy," she says. "That's what I see in my mind's eye. I would not miss it for the world."

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