Over 80 students are helping UNE prepare for possible mass casualties

BIDDEFORD (WGME) – As the one-year anniversary of the mass shooting in Lewiston approaches, UNE is helping the community better prepare in case such an event ever happens again.

A “mock mass casualty event” occurred at the university on Saturday.

Over 80 students signed up to participate in the simulation, and Central Maine Health's chief of surgery was in attendance to speak about the lessons learned last October.

“Our goal is to educate our students about the resources available to them and show them how to handle cases where the number of patients exceeds resources and how to address the needs of each scenario.” said Kyle Scully, UNE clinical associate professor.

“A single-vehicle rollover can occur if you have an ambulance with four patients, you are in rural Maine and there is only one ambulance within 30 minutes. “That counts as a mass casualty incident because you only have two providers that can take care of four patients,” Gavin Faulkner said.

Last month, Gov. Mills responded to the Lewiston Commission's final report, calling the tragedy “a colossal failure of human judgment.”