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It's a scenario that Lyndsey Johnson has played in her mind over and over again. What would she do, or how would she react, if she was ever to find herself in the middle of an active shooter situation, whether at work, at the mall or in any other public place?
"It's a scary situation that you hope never happens," said the unit coordinator on Tower 10B. "But we're seeing more and more incidents like this one in the news, so it's hard to ignore."
Last week, Johnson was among many BWHers who attended the screening of the hospital's new Active Shooter Preparedness Training video, which provides an overview of procedures and guidelines that the hospital has in place to help keep staff, patients, families and visitors safe, should this emergency situation happen here.
"Active shooter situations are low-probability but high-impact events," Bob Chicarello, director of Security and Parking, told the staff gathered to watch the 11-minute training video last week. "Thinking about your response now, when you are not in the middle of a crisis, may be the key to survival."
According to news reports, there have been 11 mass shooting across the country over the last year, resulting in 85 deaths.
The BWH training video details how BWH Security and Emergency Management, in coordination with Boston Police, would respond to such an incident. It also provides three options to guide staff in the event of an active shooter situation:
Run: Move as quickly as you can to get away from the active shooter and into a safe location.
Hide: Includes any action that might keep the shooter from reaching you, like hiding in a room and locking or blocking the door.
Fight: As a last resort, "fight" applies if you find yourself face-to-face with the shooter and are not able to run or hide. In this case, you and your coworkers can make a personal choice to attempt to overpower the individual who is threatening you.
Learning about these options is something Adirson Magalhaes, a chef for BWH Food Services, found useful.
"Before watching this video, I had no idea what I would do if I was in this kind of situation," said Magalhaes. "I think many people like me here in the hospital will benefit from knowing these options."
The video was filmed at the hospital with a cast of BWHers who demonstrated the responses to certain scenarios.
"What we wanted to do is ‘Brighamize' the video so that it brought relevance to the training," said Barry Wante, director of Emergency Management.
For Johnson, the video offered a first step toward being prepared for this type of emergency.
"I don't think we can ever feel 100 percent safe anywhere nowadays, but just knowing that Security and people in the hospital are thinking about ways to keep us safe offers some peace of mind," she said.
Footage from BWH's new Active Shooter Preparedness Training video instructs employees to run, hide or fight depending on the shooter's location in the event of an active shooter situation.