Spring Fling leads to mass casualty incident

Authorities declared a mass casualty incident (MCI) during Spring Fling, as the number of patients emergency services had to deal with during one point on Saturday afternoon exceeded the number that their resources could support.

Tufts Emergency Medical Services (TEMS) received 30 calls, according to TEMS advisor Geoffrey Bartlett. At least 10 students were sent to local hospitals, according to Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) Sgt. Robert McCarthy. A rush of calls over a few hours overwhelmed ambulance services.

Armstrong Ambulance Service, which covers Medford, declared an MCI after it — along with Cataldo Ambulance Service, which works in Somerville — did not have enough ambulances to transport patients from the annual event, which featured rappers Ludacris and Asher Roth as well as The Decemberists and two Tufts student bands.

 "In my recollection of TEMS history, this is the only time that I'm aware of that TEMS has been involved with a formally declared MCI," said Bartlett, who first became involved with the service as an undergraduate in the mid-1990s. Bartlett is also the technical services manager at the Department of Public Safety.

"The volume, frankly, was surprising," Bartlett said. "We've never seen so many emergencies at Spring Fling."

Because the Medford-Somerville line runs through the President's Lawn, at which Spring Fling took place, both Medford and Somerville emergency services joined the university in responding to the event.

As soon as the MCI declaration was made, Bartlett said, ambulances could begin coming in from outside the immediate communities.

Temperatures were unseasonably warm during Saturday's concert, which saw four TEMS teams on the ground covering the event and campus. Representatives of local emergency services and the university staffed an incident command station at Tisch Library, coordinating services throughout the day.

"This Spring Fling was very, very busy [compared to past years]," said junior Allie Krill, the executive director of Tufts Emergency Medical Services (TEMS).

Bartlett would not comment on the types of calls TEMS received, citing privacy concerns.

"Our students who work for TEMS did an outstanding job yesterday," Bartlett said. "We certainly took measures ahead of time, but they still had to work more than we ever had to see a TEMS detail at Spring Fling have to work."