After Pulse: Bryan Batien

Posted on by Thor

Bryan Batien is a psychologist at the Orlando Veterans Administration Medical Center. After the Pulse nightclub massacre the Orlando VA offered significant volunteer counseling to members of the community, victims families and survivors.

The morning after the Pulse nightclub shooting Brian’s wife turned on the TV. News of the shooting was on all of the channels. They sat and watched all of the updates, feeling helpless. His wife is also a psychologist and they are used to working with trauma so they knew how devastating this would be for the community. They both wanted to help. They both work with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and realized this might trigger some of the vets they work with. They realized there might be a flood of people going to the Lake Nona clinic.

He texted his chief of psychology and said he could go into the VA if needed. Half an hour later he got a text back about the emergency response team. Bryan had been to the Institute of Disaster Mental Health so he and his wife had training in psychological first aid and responding to disasters and emergencies. The text response asked if he could get to the Hampton Inn in 45 minutes. This is where the families of victims and survivors were meeting. He had no idea what he would be doing at the location.

The Va sent several giant buses that can be used as portable offices and medical exam rooms. Families were there because they could not get a hold of their loved ones. Families were starting to collect there and waited, not knowing. A briefing was vague, they were asked to do what they can and answer questions. Give people water, guide them if they don’t know where to go. Just be there if people need to talk. As they identified the victims,  both in the hospital and deceased, they slowly figured out how to notify families. That went on throughout the night.

The second day they went to the Beardall Center and the process was much the same. They pulled in families one at a time, and the psychologists would be there with the family. Families saw other families come out of those rooms, so they suspected the outcome. But there is always the hope that their loved on was recovering in the hospital.

This was the first time he had to be involved in giving death notifications. The first time he entered one of the rooms with a family, he didn’t know what to expect. After being told, the family would be in the room for quite a while.  When hope was shattered there would be a floodgate of emotion, grief, sadness, loss, and pain. It took a long time to get to a place where they could leave. As a psychologist he is used to working towards a goal, but here, he could do nothing. The process became a blur.

 

 

After Pulse: Catholic Charities

Posted on by Thor

Gary Testor executive director of the Catholic Chrities of Central Florida, went to mass the morning after the Pulse Nightclub shooting. He head that there had been a shooting but the information was sketchy at the time. At about 10:15AM he got a text message from the chancellor of the dioceses, Carol Brinati, that Deacon David Grey was going to call. The call came at about 11am. David was at the Hampton Inn with other clergy. He needed counselors. Ten minutes later he called back and had realized that there was a need for Spanish speaking professionals.

It was chaotic at the Hampton inn and translators were needed. Gary called Debbie Cruz to arrange to get translators on site by 1pm.

Joel Stinera,was called by Debbie and then Rosa. He drove down to the Orlando Regional Medical Center (ORMC) and arrived about 2 or 3pm. Family were waiting for news about their loved ones who may have been shot. It was crowded and disorganized. The experience was overwhelming and sad. He tried to comfort the family’s and friends of the victims.  Someone stood at a podium and started reading the names of the people at the hospital. After the list was read they said, “Well, if your family member wasn’t mentioned, they didn’t make it.” This was all in English. Many did not understand. Family cried. When family actually got news the chaos got worse. That experience marked him for life.

Julio Rivera saw the news on Facebook. His family began to call checking to see if he was OK. He flipped on the TV and couldn’t believe what he saw. Debbie Cruz contacted him and asked him to get downtown as well. People met at the Catholic Charities office and they went together to the Hampton Inn Hotel. They entered through the back door of the hotel. There was no security. They walked a long hallway with people crying, yelling and laying on the floor. He recognized some people, including former clients and talked to them. A doctor of director from hospital announced the names. The victims were in two different hospitals. The first names were people who were in stable but critical condition. Every announcement was in English. No one was translating. Julio tried to shout his translations over the chaos.

The second round was names of people at ORMC, in critical condition. People were advised to talk to a representative, but again this as all in English. People shouted, “Shut up we can not hear!” If a name was not announced then they did not have information about that person or they are deceased. When the translator announced that true chaos broke out. There was screaming crying and people hitting the walls. There was a lady on the floor and he gave her a bottle of water and tried to comfort her. The chief or police got u to the podium and said he understood the situation. He asked for time because they were still investigating. By that time no one was listening. It isn’t what you say, but how you say it and there was no compassion in the announcements. People who heard their loved ones names left for the hospitals. Everyone else stayed and waited. There was some media inside taking pictures. Julio stayed until about 7:30pm.