Weekly blog 2025-04-04

This week my class was offered the chance to participate in the University of South Alabama's mass casualty drill. I played the role of a gunshot victim, with a GSW to the right upper thigh, conscious but severely disoriented. When the drill began it was insane, sirens blaring, responders shouting, gun shots ringing out, and medical personnel assessing the wounded. Eventually, I was secured to a spine board, third time was a charm, and carried out to the tarps, each one color-coded to indicate injury severity, green, yellow, red, and black. I was placed in my designated zone, surrounded by others in various states of trauma, watching as first responders triaged and worked to save as many lives as possible. While at the tarp I had a tourniquet placed on my leg and gauze wrapped tightly around the wound. Afterwards, I was transferred to gurney, placed in an ambulance, and transferred to the field hospital, the South Alabama Gift Shop with beds, supplies, and medical professionals. My character lived another day, traumatized, but alive.

Another activity from this week was practicing our presentations in front of someone new. I presented to my boyfriend, who was very harsh, and received written criticism. He told me that I "sucked" at making eye contact, read too much off my paper, and seemed extremely nervous which led to it seeming like I didn't know what I was presenting on, I do. My speech ended up being six and a half minutes long.