BANGOR, Maine — Members of the Bangor Police Department’s special response team stormed the seventh floor of Eastern Maine Medical Center’s new expansion Wednesday to put an end to a mock threat that everyone hopes will never actually happen.
They were joined by first responders and emergency preparedness officials from agencies across the region at the hospital for the disaster drill.
The drill started at 10:10 a.m., with an announcement over the intercom of “Code Pink” — which means an infant has been taken from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in the hospital’s new expansion, the Penobscot Pavilion. Employees from across the hospital headed to the exits to monitor who tried to come and go, and the building went into a mock lockdown. No one carrying an infant would be allowed to leave, had it not been a drill.
“The entire hospital is drilling on this,” said Joel Farley, the hospital’s facilities and emergency preparedness administrator.
A few moments later, the hypothetical situation got worse. The “Code Pink” became “Code Silver” — an active shooter on the seventh floor. Special response teams scrambled to end the threat, organizing at the hospital before pushing up to the seventh floor and entering the NICU as volunteer actors screamed in the background.
Nurses and staff on the floor and throughout the hospital played their roles, securing entrances and ensuring patients were as safe as possible.
Bangor police spokesman Sgt. Tim Cotton said the special response team drills whenever possible, often at one of the city’s school facilities during school vacations. It gives officers a chance to practice tactics and prepare for real-life emergencies.
While the drill was in progress, hospital officials and representatives of emergency response agencies gathered in a command center set up in a conference room on a lower floor.
“I wish we didn’t have to do this, but unfortunately it’s the world we live in,” Farley said.
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