Nine young people on the brink of adulthood.
Nine beloved sons and daughters.
So many lives, far and wide, altered in the wreckage of a horrific car crash.
When an alleged drunken driver broadsided a car jammed with nine friends in Arden Arcade on Wednesday night, the effects rippled through the darkness.
Within minutes, trauma specialists began assembling in four different emergency rooms across the region. Social workers and chaplains were summoned.
The late-night telephone calls that every parent fears began ringing into the homes of the injured youths. Parents called relatives and friends, and rushed to various emergency rooms. Former classmates of the injured young people began to migrate to the site of the crash.
And, just a few days before Christmas, one mother and father learned of the death of their "pride and joy," their son, Scott Allen Crouch.
It was about 11 o'clock Wednesday night when Bethann Colyer of Carmichael allegedly ran a red light at the intersection of Whitney and Eastern avenues and crashed into a Honda CRV filled with people. According to the California Highway Patrol, Colyer was drunk behind the wheel.
The crash triggered a regionwide medical response.
Ambulances screamed through the streets, and paramedics descended. After quickly assessing the injured, they called UC Davis Medical Center, which houses the area's most comprehensive trauma center.
The paramedics reported that they had a car full of young victims, some of them clinging to life with head injuries. One, Crouch, was dead at the scene.
The driver of the Chevy Tahoe, Colyer, was not seriously hurt.
UC Davis immediately began contacting other hospitals, and – based on staffing and other considerations – directed paramedics to take three patients to UC Davis, two to Mercy San Juan Medical Center, two to Sutter Roseville and one to Kaiser Permanente North.
UC Davis put its trauma staff on high alert. Within minutes, Ian Smith, 18, of Carmichael, arrived in the emergency room with a broken neck. Benjamin Harrington, 18, of Auburn, had major head trauma, as did Michael Hewitt, 20, of El Dorado Hills.
Meanwhile, at Mercy San Juan, Jessica Mendoza, 18, of Gold River, and Bart Kirby, 19, were rushed in with head injuries and other major trauma. At Kaiser North, Jason Doverspike, 18, of Carmichael, arrived with head trauma. At Sutter Roseville, Jessica Rosser, 18, of Gold River, came in with head pain. Garron Engstrom, 18, of Sacramento, had gashes on his face and hands.
Debra Trainor, nurse manager of the emergency room at UC Davis, said the hospital called upon virtually every trauma specialist in the house Wednesday night, and also summoned social workers to deal with families of the young patients.
More than 20 medical experts responded to the crisis, Trainor estimated. To the untrained eye, the scene might have looked like "controlled chaos," she said. But it was more like a finely tuned orchestra in action.
"This was definitely an unusual circumstance, with a death at the scene and so many kids involved all at once," Trainor said. "But it's not something we can't handle."
UC Davis trauma specialists divided into three teams to treat the incoming patients. In trauma cases, doctors and nurses work under the pressure of the so-called "Golden Hour," which dictates that patients will have the best chance of survival if they are treated aggressively within 60 minutes of their injuries.
During the first moments treating a trauma patient, doctors and nurses typically work to "clear the airway," to allow the person to breathe properly and the brain to get enough oxygen, said Dr. David Wisner, trauma surgery chief at UC Davis. In some cases, that requires putting tubes in the throat or installing a mechanical ventilator.
Intravenous lines are started to give patients fluid and blood. Doctors order tests, including CT scans to check for signs of brain bleeding or swelling. Patients who need surgery are rushed to operating rooms.
Call the Bee's Cynthia Hubert, (916) 321-1082. Bee staff writer Stan Oklobdzija contributed to this report.
