Feb 1, 2018 - Politics & Policy

After train crash, lawmakers pull out their M.D.s

Republican members of Congress with medical experience put their skills to work after a train carrying dozens of them crashed into a garbage truck in rural Virginia, killing a 28-year-old in the truck, AP's Alan Fram and Heidi Brown write.

  • "The congressmen were on their way to a strategy retreat in the countryside when the collision occurred around 11:20 a.m. ... in Crozet, about 125 miles ... southwest of Washington."
  • "Amtrak said two crew members and three passengers were taken to a hospital with minor injuries. ... Speaker Paul Ryan ... was on the train and was unhurt."
  • "The chartered Amtrak train ... set out from the nation's capital with lawmakers, family members and staff for the luxury Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia."
  • "Florida Rep. Neal Dunn, a former Army surgeon, said he and other lawmakers who are doctors joined other passengers who are nurses or paramedics and jumped out with the basic medical gear they had. They broke into three teams to help the injured people in the truck."
  • "Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and his wife, both doctors, were among those who came to the rescue. He said he helped a man from the truck who was badly injured."
  • Cassidy: "My role was quite simple: I picked up his feet so the blood in his feet would go to his heart and his brain."
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