It is a little like trying to direct traffic without ever knowing when rush hour will occur.

The first patient from Logan Airport to arrive was Thomas Savio, a twenty-seven-year-old bearded construction worker. He arrived in a state police ambulance and was wheeled in wrapped in a gray wool blanket. He was shivering and had severe facial lacerations.

"There's a worse one coming," one of the troopers said. Moments later, John Conamente arrived, groaning. As his stretcher came through the door, one of the residents asked him what hurt. He said it was his shoulder and his leg. Conamente was followed by Albert Sorono, also on a stretcher, complaining of severe pain in his chest and difficulty in breathing.

By now the waiting room was filled with troopers and policemen. The families of the injured men had not yet begun to arrive. Hospital personnel who had not been informed of the accident but had noticed the cluster of policemen stopped to inquire what was happening. At this time, no one really knew the nature of the accident and there was widespread confusion about it; most people thought a plane had crashed at Logan. An inquisitive crowd began to gather in the lobby. The EW administrators were busy trying to get identifying information on the patients and also attempting to keep the passageways from becoming clogged. "We got seven more coming," one of them said over and over.

A few minutes later, another ambulance pulled up and Ralph Orlando, a fifty-five-year-old father of four, was taken off. He had suffered a cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital and closed cardiac massage was being given by a nurse, the first person who happened to reach him as he was taken from the ambulance. Orlando was wheeled in at a dead run; the massage was taken over by a resident. The patient was taken to OR 1, where full re-suscitative procedures were begun.