At hospitals across the Inland Empire, nurses constantly monitor computer screens on which ambulance calls typically stream in one by one. They can see what’s happening throughout the region. On Wednesday morning, all was quiet.
Then just after 11 a.m., an emergency flash: MASS SHOOTING. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.
Two assailants had opened fire with assault rifles at an office party at a county facility in San Bernardino, leaving 14 dead and 21 wounded. Surrounding hospitals were immediately flooded with police, reporters and grief-stricken families.
For emergency room nurses and doctors, coping with high-pressure situations and patients near death is familiar.
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Friends and relatives of Sierra Clayborn gather for her funeral at Mt. Moriah Missionary Baptist Church in South Los Angeles.
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A memorial service was held for Nicholas Thalasinos on Saturday morning at the Shiloh Messianic Congregation in Calimesa.
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A Shabbat service was part of the memorial for Nicholas Thalasinos at Shiloh Messianic Congregation in Calimesa, where Thalasinos and his wife, Jennifer, were integral parts of the congregation.
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A hired mover carries out personal items from the home of San Bernardino shooters Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik.
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Residents turn out to greet President Obama’s motorcade in San Bernardino.
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President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama greet San Bernardino Mayor R. Carey Davis, center, and Supervisor James Ramos outside Air Force One at the San Bernardino airport on Friday night.
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President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama leave in a motorcade, after arriving at San Bernardino International Airport, to meet privately with the families of the victims of the San Bernardino terrorist attack.
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President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama depart Air Force One at San Bernardino International Airport.
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San Bernardino residents Ashrie Matthews, left, Leah Brown and James Matthews line the street to cheer the president’s motorcade.
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President Obama stopped in San Bernardino on Friday evening to privately visit with the families of some of the victims of the Dec. 2 terrorist attack. Ashrie Matthews, left, Leah Brown and James Matthews joined others to cheer as the president’s motorcade passed.
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Anti-Obama protester Deann D’Lean, right, holds some of the many signs she brought to a small protest. In the background, Paul Rodriguez, Jr., with America First Latinos holds a bullhorn. Protesters were out on some San Bernardino street corners voicing their opposition to the president and Islamic State.
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People continue to visit the memorial just down the street from where the terrorist attack occurred.
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Family members and friends pay their respects to Robert Adams, one of the 14 victims killed in the San Bernardino shooting, during his graveside funeral service at Montecito Memorial Park in Colton.
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Summer Adams, center, grieves at the graveside ceremony for her husband, Robert Adams, at Montecito Memorial Park in Colton.
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A mourner sits on the curb with her head in her hands during the graveside ceremony for San Bernardino shooting victim Robert Adams at Montecito Memorial Park in Colton.
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Mourners embrace at the funeral for Aurora Godoy at Calvary Chapel in Gardena on Wednesday. Godoy was one of 14 killed in the attack in San Bernardino on Dec. 2. (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)
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Mourners embrace at the funeral for Aurora Godoy at Calvary Chapel in Gardena on Wednesday. Godoy was one of 14 killed in the attack in San Bernardino on Dec. 2.
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Mourners arrive for the funeral for San Bernardino shooting victim Aurora Godoy at Calvary Chapel in Gardena on Wednesday.
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Shemiran Betbadal, mother of Bennetta Betbadal, is hugged by family after funeral services at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Rancho Cucamonga.
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Pallbearers carry the casket of Bennetta Bet-Badal during funeral services Monday at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Rancho Cucamonga. Bet-Badal was one of the 14 people killed in the San Barnardino shooting rampage.
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The husband and children of Bennetta Bet-Badal hug Monday following her funeral services at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Rancho Cucamonga.
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Funeral services were held for Bennetta Bet-Badal, one of the 14 people killed in the San Barnardino shooting rampage, at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Rancho Cucamonga.
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Funeral services were held for Bennetta Bet-Badal at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Rancho Cucamonga.
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Funeral services were held for Bennetta Bet-Badal at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Rancho Cucamonga.
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Twelve days after the mass shooting attack at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino the flowers are beginning to wilt but hugs and paryers are still in abundance.
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Gwen Rodgers, assistant pastor at the Church of Living God, hugs Cindy Quinones, cousin of the slain Aurora Godoy, during a vigil at the makeshift memorial for the victims of the terrorist attacks in San Bernardino, Calif.
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Visitors arrive to pay their respects at the makeshift memorial outside the fenced off Inland Regional Center, in the background, the site of the deadly terrorist attacks, in San Bernardino, Calif.
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San Trinh, the longtime boyfriend of Tin Nguyen, 31, one of the victims of the San Bernardino terrorist attack, is consoled by family members as Nguyen’s casket is loaded into a hearse at St. Barbara’s Catholic Church in Santa Ana.
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Cousins of Tin Nguyen -- Trang Le, left, Tram Le and Krystal Le -- hold onto some of her personal items and cry as they watch her casket being lowered into the ground at her funeral at the Good Shepherd Cemetery in Huntington Beach.
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Pallbearers stand guard over the casket of the Tin Nguyen, a Cal State Fullerton graduate, at the start of her memorial service at St. Barbara’s Catholic Church in Santa Ana.
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Van Thanh Nguyen shouts her daughter’s name during her funeral at the Good Shepherd Cemetary in Huntington Beach. Tin Nguyen was 31.
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Family members and friends write messages on the side of the Tin Nguyen’s burial vault.
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Van Thanh Nguyen places her hand on her daughter’s casket while surrounded by friends and family.
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The casket of San Bernardino shooting victim Isaac Amanios leaves the St. Minas Orthodox Church during his funeral service in Colton.
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Two women cry during Isaac Amanios’ funeral service at the St. Minas Orthodox Church in Colton. Amanios, 60, is survived by his wife and three children.
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Funeral goers cry during Isaac Amanios’ service. Amanios had shared a cubicle with the male shooter at the San Bernardino County Public Health Department.
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Frineds and family stand during the funeral service for Isaac Amanios.
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Trenna Meins, center with daughters after the funeral for her husband Damian Meins at St. Catherine Of Alexandria in Riverside.
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Pallbearers escort the casket of Damian Meins at St. Catherine of Alexandria church in Riverside.
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Mourners gather at St. Catherine Of Alexandria in Riverside on Friday morning for the funeral of Damian Meins, one of 14 people killed in the San Bernardino shooting.
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Trenna Meins places a cross on her husband’s coffin. Damien Meins was killed in a terrorist attack at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino.
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Mourners gather for the funeral of Damian Meins.
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Community members sing Amazing Grace during a candlelight vigil for Nicholas Thalasinos and the 13 other San Bernardino shooting victims at Fleming Park in Colton, Calif.
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COLTON, CA - DECEMBER 10, 2015: Jennifer Thalasinos,middle, fights back tears during a candlelight vigil for her slain husband Nicholas Thalasinos and the 13 other San Bernardino shooting victims at Fleming Park on December 10, 2015 in Colton, California.(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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A portrait of Yvette Velasco, one of the victims of the deadly San Bernardino terrorist attacks, is placed at her funeral service at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in Covina, Calif.
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Robert Velasco, father of Yvette Velasco, consoles a family member during Yvette’s funeral service at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in Covina, Calif.
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COVINA, CALIF.--December 10, 2015 - The coffin of San Bernardino shooting victim, Yvette Velasco, is carried to the hearse following a private viewing for family at Forest Lawn Mortuary in Covina, Calif.
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An FBI dive team searches a lake located about two miles north of the Inland Regional Center in connection with last week’s terrorist attack and shootout that left the two attackers and 14 victims dead.
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An FBI dive team searches a lake near the Inland Regional Center in connection with last week’s terrorist attack.
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A memorial to victims of the terrorist attack in San Bernardino continues to grow near the Inland Regional Center, where the attack took place during a holiday party.
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One week after the mass shooting at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, the public is posting signs of gratitude and thanks like this one found at the San Bernardino Police Department.
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Family members and survivors paid their respects with a moment of silence at 11 a.m., exactly one week after the shooting occured at the Inland Regional Center.
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Customers wait for the doors to open at Turner’s Outdoorsman in San Bernardino Wednesday morning.
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Speaking during a Dec. 8 news conference, dispatcher Michelle Rodriguez of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department becomes emotional as she recounts the events of the deadly San Bernardino attack.
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Trenna Meins, right, of Riverside, hugs friends and family during a vigil t the Riverside County Health Complex for her husband, Damian Meins, and 13 others killed in the San Bernardino shooting rampage.
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On Dec. 8, people bring flowers, candles and remembrances to a memorial to the San Bernardino shooting victims near the Inland Regional Center, the scene of the attack.
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Frank Cobet of the Get Loaded gun store in Grand Terrace shows a customer an AR-15 rifle on Dec. 8.
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Monica Gonzales relights candles Tuesday morning at a memorial for victims of the shooting rampage in San Bernardino.
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Community members and students gather for a Dec. 7 vigil on the Cal State San Bernardino campus to remember the victims of the deadly attack in the city.
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Patricia Corona of Colton, Calif., holds her children, Dejah Salvato, 7, and Brandon Salvato, 9, as they attend a Dec. 7 vigil at the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors headquarters to pay tribute to the victims of the city’s recent mass shootings.
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A prayer is said at the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors headquarters to honor the victms of the city’s recent mass shootings.
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FBI agents put up a screen to block the view of onlookers as they investigate the building at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino.
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Syed Farook, father of the suspect in the San Bernardino mass shooting, Syed Rizwan Farook, arrives at his home to a swarm of reporters in Corona, Calif.
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Roses are laid at the entrance to San Bernardino County headquarters as thousands of employees returned to work Monday, five days after Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik opened fire on a gathering of his co-workers, killing 14 people and wounding 21.
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Trudy Raymundo, director the the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health, is surrounded by San Bernardino County supervisors as she addresses the media during a press conference Monday.
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John Ramos of Riverside pays his respects Monday at a makeshift memorial site honoring Wednesday’s shooting victims in San Bernardino.
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Claudia Zaragoza writes a message on a banner at the ever-growing memorial site to the victims of the recent mass shootings near the Inland Regional Center.
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Caroline Campbell, from left, Jessie Campbell and Rylee Ponce embrace as they pay their respects at the ever-growing memorial site for the victims of the recent mass shootings.
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Caroline Campbell embraces her son, David Malijan, 6, as they pay their respects at the ever-growing memorial site to the victims of the recent mass shootings near the Inland Regional Center.
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The Zafarullah family of Chino, originally of Pakistan, watches Obama’s address. Arshia, at left, is holding her 18-month-old nephew, Sohail Ahmed.
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One of several signs supporting the city of San Bernardino hang above the 215 Freeway on Sunday evening.
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Members of the Muslim community, such as Khadija Zadeh, lit candles and wrote messages to the families of victims of the San Bernardino shooting rampage during a memorial service at the Islamic Community Center of Redlands in Loma Linda.
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Ajarat Bada prays during a memorial service at the Islamic Community Center of Redlands in Loma Linda to remember the victims of the San Bernardino shooting rampage.
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Alaa Alsafadi, center, holds her son, Yousef, 4, during a memorial service at the Islamic Community Center of Redlands in Loma Linda.
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Riders from the Christian Motorcycle Association in San Bernardino pray at a growing makeshift memorial for San Bernardino shooting victims near the Inland Regional Center.
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A candlelight vigil dubbed “United We Stand,” took place at Granada Hills Charter High School on Saturday evening. The event was organized by Muslim Youth Los Angeles and Devonshire Area in Partnership.
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Ryan Reyes, boyfriend of San Bernardino shooting victim Larry Daniel Kaufman, hugs members of Dar Al Uloom Al Islamiyah of America mosque who brought roses to a memorial at the Sante Fe Dam on Saturday.
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A bullet hole in the window of a pick up truck where the shootout took place on San Bernardino Avenue.
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A composite photo of the 14 victims of the San Bernardino shooting rampage. (Courtesy of family / Los Angeles Times)
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People kneel in prayer for victims of the recent mass shootings at the Inland Regional Center, in San Bernardino.
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After sunset, people continue to arrive at the memorial site for the victims of the recent mass shootings at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino.
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The scene after landlord Doyle Miller opened the doors and allowed the news media inside the Redlands town home where Syed Rizwan Farook and Tafsheen Malik, suspects of the deadly the recent mass shootings in San Bernardino, lived.
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Josie Ramirez-Herndon, center, and her daughter, Chelsie Ramirez, bottom left, join other community members as they pray during a candlelight vigil.
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Fabio Ahumada, a San Bernardino EMT, attends a vigil at San Manuel Stadium
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A couple embrace at the candlelight vigil to honor the victims of the mass shootings at the Inland Regional Center.
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Angel Meler-Baumgartner 11, who was a member of the Inland Regional Center, where the shooting occurred, attends a vigil at San Manuel Stadium for the victims.
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The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA held a press conference and prayer vigil at Baitul Hameed Mosque in Chino. The group denounced the massacre.
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Amy Mahmood, right, holds hands with a woman named Shenaz during the vigil at San Manuel Stadium.
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Ryan Reyes, center, breaks down after finding out his boyfriend of three years, Daniel Kaufman, 42, was one of those killed during Wednesday’s mass shooting at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino.
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Ryan Reyes holds an image of his boyfriend Daniel Kaufman who was confirmed as one of the 14 victims of Wednesday’s mass shooting at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino.
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Larry Jones, left, pastor of Crossover Outreach Church; Dr. Jeannetta Million, pastor of Victoria’s Believers Church; and Arnold Morales, pastor of King of Glory Church, pray for the victims and those involved in the mass shooting in San Bernardino.
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A coalition of church leaders comes together to pray for the victims and those involved in the San Bernardino shootings.
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FBI investigators inside the suspects’ Redlands home on Thursday morning.
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The investigation continues Thursday morning on San Bernardino Avenue, where two suspects in the mass shooting at the Inland Regional Center died in a shootout with police.
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Law enforcement stands guard at a police line as investigators work at a Redlands home after the San Bernardino attack.
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A SWAT team stands guard with a rifle pointed at a home that is being investigated by police after today’s San Bernardino’s mass shootings.
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Farhan Khan, second from right, who was identified as the brother-in-law of San Bernardino shooting suspect Syed Rizwan Farook, joins religious leaders during a news conference at the Council of American Islamic Relations in Anaheim.
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San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies draw guns behind a minivan on Richardson St. during a search for suspects involved in the mass shooting of 14 people at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino.
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Marie Cabrera, Sonya Gonzalez and Christine Duran, all of San Bernardino, pray after the mass shooting in San Bernardino.
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A woman and a man enter the Rudy C Hernandez Community Center after they and other people, who were at the scene of a mass shooting, arrived by bus to be reunited with their familys.
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Emergency personnel bring in a wounded person into Loma University Medical Center after the shooting in San Bernardino on Wednesday.
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A SWAT unit is on the move in San Bernardino.
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A member of the San Manual Fire Department takes the names of people evacuated from the scene of a mass shooting in San Bernardino before they are loaded onto buses and taken away from the area.
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Sheriff’s department SWAT members deploy on Richardson Street in San Bernardino on Wednesday.
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Sheriff’s department SWAT members deploy near San Bernardino Avenue and Richardson Street in San Bernardino on Wednesday.
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Evacuated workers join in a circle to pray on the San Bernardino Golf Course across the street from where a shooting occurred at the Inland Regional Center.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) But usually, the danger doesn’t hit so close to home.
With the shooters still on the loose, those caring for victims on Wednesday couldn’t help but worry, “What about our own families? Could they potentially be shot?” said Dr. Kathleen Clem, chair of the emergency medicine department at Loma Linda University Medical Center.
Most hospitals now regularly hold active shooter drills. But still, the attack in San Bernardino ushered in a new level of anxiety for hospitals in the region.
“I live right here,” Clem said. “This is my home.”
On Wednesday morning, she raced to find the hospital’s on-call emergency room physicians. Ambulances would be arriving soon with wounded patients. Loma Linda hospital is only three miles from the Inland Regional Center, the site of the attack.
Luckily, the on-call physicians were already in the hospital for a morning talk with doctors-in-training. “I pulled them out of the lecture hall,” Clem said.
She assembled 12 physicians -- triple the number that usually staff the ER -- and stationed trauma teams at the front entrance of the emergency room, ready to tend to patients as soon as ambulances pulled up.
As patients began arriving at the hospital, chaos descended on the community.
A manhunt for the killers unfolded close by. Loma Linda hospital received a bomb threat.
Little was known about how many people had been killed and who or where the shooters were. Inside the hospital’s emergency room waiting room, patients watched news clips, scoured social media sites and fielded phone calls and texts from relatives asking if they were alive and safe. Reporters began showing up.
Nurses warned against photographing or filming. Staff shielded a patient with white sheets as they rushed him inside.
Then, about 2:30 p.m., police stormed the facility, responding to a bomb threat. They searched the corners of each room for explosive devices.
Clem recalled seeing bomb-sniffing dogs at her feet as she treated patients. Though police determined within an hour that there were no bombs, the scare was yet another reminder of what felt like imminent risk nearby – and to be “at the ready for whatever else might come, and not knowing what that would be,” Clem said.
Loma Linda and Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton, south of San Bernardino, both run trauma centers -- special emergency room units equipped to treat serious injuries like gunshots -- so patients with the most serious gunshot wounds were taken there. At least five hospitals received people hurt in the shootings.
Not knowing where their relatives had been taken, family members of victims contacted several hospitals, seeking information about loved ones — hoping for solace.
Many didn’t find it.
San Trinh raced from hospital to hospital in the San Bernardino region, looking for his girlfriend’s name on patient rosters. A county health inspector, Tin Nguyen had been in the room where the attack happened.
Trinh – along with Nguyen’s brother, Trung -- ticked off the names of medical facilities they visited, but their search yielded no clues. Trinh knew something was wrong.
“We were always in touch,” he said of his girlfriend, whom he had been dating for more than five years. Still, family members said that instead of sitting and waiting with terrified relatives, he preferred to check the hospitals.
Trinh, along with four generations of the Nguyen family who gathered at her Santa Ana home waiting for updates, eventually learned that Nguyen was never taken to a hospital. She was killed at the scene.
For hospital staff, reuniting patients with their families often felt like the most pressing task Wednesday.
San Antonio Regional Hospital in Upland received two shooting victims, both of whom were discharged the same day. Because the hospital is 25 miles from the attack site, families hadn’t yet reached the patients, who were “quite anxious to get back to their family,” said Dr. Kevin Parkes, the emergency room department’s medical director.
Parkes said a taxi was called for one of the patients, so the patient didn’t have to wait for family to drive all the way to Upland.
As the day went on, nerves remained tense across the Southland. An hours-long search for the killers was underway. It was revealed that they lived in an apartment in Redlands, a city about 10 miles east of San Bernardino.
Though Redlands Community Hospital didn’t treat any patients, the hospital went into partial lockdown, not allowing any visitors in. Located so close to the shooters’ home, “we weren’t sure exactly what we were going to be getting,” said Pam Allen, the hospital’s director of emergency services. The lockdown remained in place until 8:30 p.m. the next evening.
At most facilities, security precautions were eased after the two killers died in a shootout with police later in the afternoon.
All day, Loma Linda staff waited to receive more patients. But by the evening, they had treated only five from the shooting.
Clem said she wished the hospital could have tried to save more lives, that fewer victims had died on scene. Her doctors had been prepared to triage as many as 50 patients.
“We deal very well with tragedy when we can help,” she said. “It’s when we can’t that it’s hard for us.”
soumya.karlamangla@latimes.com
Times staff writers Anh Do, Zahira Torres, Tony Barboza, Louis Sahagun, Kate Linthicum, Joseph Serna and Rong-Gong Lin II contributed to this report.
