AFSCME to the Rescue at Olympic Bombing

It was 1:21 a.m., just one week after the start of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games, when the bomb exploded. The blast sent shockwaves throughout the city and AFSCME emergency medical personnel to the scene.

Grady Hospital emergency medical technicians -- AFSCME Local 1644 members -- had just minutes to deal with more than 100 victims. Fearing a second explosion and hearing the moans and groans of the victims, they had in the words of one fire official, "seconds to load up and go."

Paramedic Susan Lewis's unit was the first to arrive after the homemade device exploded, spewing shrapnel and nails into the crowd at an early-morning concert in Centennial Park.

"There was mass confusion, " said Lewis, who was three blocks away when she heard the bomb go off and felt the ground vibrate.

"Olympic fans, state troopers, and others were lying on the ground, yelling and crying for help. The dazed, walking wounded asked 'What happened?'" she said.

It was another example of AFSCME members rising to the occasion in a time of trouble -- as they did during the Oklahoma City bombing, plane crashes, and such natural disasters as hurricanes, floodings and tornadoes.

"My job, along with my partner, was to quickly set up the reading of vital signs -- triage -- for each victim to determine the degree of injury," Lewis explained. "In an event of this nature, potentially lethal injuries must be assessed and attended to first."

Lewis remembers the one person who lost her life that morning, Alice Hawthorne, 44, from Albany, Ga. "I covered her body with blankets and attended to her 14-year old daughter who suffered multiple fractures," she said. A second individual died later after suffering a heart attack.

"We had to move fast," said Lewis. "Ever-present in my mind, was 'God, please don't let there be a second bomb."

Lewis said that emergency personnel monitored 111 injured people within 32 minutes. Their efforts went on while police and firefighters evacuated the park.

She said that off-duty AFSCME members who heard about the bombing came down to the scene to help.

Lewis' supervisor, Tony Trimble, paid tribute to all the paramedics on the early morning shift: "They are a great bunch of people, performing above and beyond the call of duty."

By Venida RaMar Marshall