Fragile Emergency Network Rises to the Occasion : Medical: But experts hasten to warn that the airport crash was not a big test of the system.

Los Angeles County’s fragile emergency care network--which experts have predicted would fail during a major catastrophe--coped well with Friday night’s plane crash. Seven hospitals, including two with trauma centers and one with a burn center, received 25 patients in a smooth and orderly fashion, health officials said Saturday.

But they warned that this incident was not a big test of the system. “The system was not severely taxed by this,” said Truman Chaffin, head of emergency services for the county of Los Angeles. “We were very lucky. . . . We did not have hundreds of injuries and casualties.”

Only two patients required trauma center care and they were flown by helicopter to UCLA Medical Center and to County-Harbor UCLA Medical Center. Two others with severe burns were taken to Sherman Oaks Community Hospital--one of only three facilities in Los Angeles County that operates a specialized burn center.

The system was able to handle Friday’s emergency largely because of the nature and relatively low number of injuries, said Dr. Marshall Morgan, director of emergency services at UCLA Medical Center.

Health officials said survivors suffered mostly from smoke inhalation or minor injuries, which nearby hospitals without trauma centers are equipped to handle. The bulk of the survivors were treated at a health care clinic at the airport. Chaffin said 67 survivors were bused there.

Ever since Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital in Inglewood shut down its trauma center, health care officials have worried that the area would be unprotected in the event of a major disaster. “We’ve been on pins and needles since they’ve closed three or four years ago,” Chaffin said. “We don’t have a trauma center in that area and we need one.”

He also noted that countywide only a dozen beds for serious burn victims are available.

Expecting to be swamped with burn victims, Chaffin said that when county officials heard of the airline crash Friday night, they immediately began canvassing burn centers “between San Diego and San Francisco and east to Los Vegas.” He said they found 35 burn beds were available.

Chaffin said county dispatchers immediately mobilized for the disaster by sending helicopters, ambulances, teams of doctors and nurses to the airport.

Fortunately, doctors said, the crash produced few severe body burns and very little blunt trauma.

Also, UCLA’s Morgan noted, there was an abundance of goodwill and cooperation during the emergency. “As happens more often than not in the face of a well-publicized disaster,” Morgan said, “there was much more medical talent here than was needed.”

Fifteen surgical residents and more than 10 senior physicians, including the chiefs of trauma and surgery, were standing by at UCLA. Four operating room teams were on the premises and two more were on call. Six patients arrived for treatment. Four were treated and discharged, two were hospitalized and none needed surgery.

Fourteen patients were sent to two hospitals closer to the airport--Daniel Freeman Marina Hospital and Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital in Inglewood.

Mary Schnack, spokeswoman for Freeman Marina Hospital, said that most of the patients suffered smoke inhalation, but that two had orthopedic injuries--a sore hip and a broken ankle. One severely burned patient was subsequently transferred from Freeman to Sherman Oaks Community Hospital.

In an attempt to ensure that no hospital was overwhelmed by patients, Chaffin said, the county’s central dispatching system sent two patients to Brotman Medical Center in Culver City, one to Harbor-UCLA and two to Robert F. Kennedy Medical Center in Hawthorne. One of the patients at Kennedy was subsequently transferred to Sherman Oaks for treatment of severe burns.

The weaknesses of the county’s emergency network and the gaping holes in its trauma coverage were not glaring Friday night, Morgan said. But he said those weaknesses are revealed every day.

“What happens day to day shows a greater failure of our trauma system, but it’s not as high-profile. If you want to see the failure of the system, go to MLK (Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center) or County-USC (Medical Center) on any Saturday night. . . . They’re overwhelmed.”

Times staff writers Tracy Wood, Elaine Woo and Irene Wielawski also contributed to this story.

BACKGROUND

Most of those injured in Friday’s airplane crash were treated for smoke inhalation, which can be deadly. Doctors said that soot, toxins, and hot gases can sear the lining of the lungs and bronchi, causing severe swelling that can close off the breathing passage and ultimately lead to suffocation. Patients are treated with antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs. In severe cases, a patient is put on a ventilator to assist breathing.