Thread by @garius

On 8th Oct 1952 the worst civilian rail disaster in UK history happened in London. 112 dead. 340 injured.

That accident, and the actions of one woman from Florida have saved THOUSANDS of lives.

Because the disaster helped invent the paramedic


Read on /1

Not going to go into the mechanics of the crash. For that, my #longread's below.

At 8am an express running south slammed full steam into the back of a packed commuter train at Harrow & Wealdstone.

The wreckage was then hit by ANOTHER express flying north londonreconnections.com/2012/angels-an…

You can see from the picture just how awful it was. Made worse by old wooden carriages splintering on impact, and carriages crushing up under the bridge at H&W, which still bears scars today.

But after the disaster two pieces of luck: Who was on the train, and where it happened

The commuter service was popular with railway workers. Many died. A survivor described the Euston drafting office afterwards as "akin to the Somme".

The uninjured railway workers kicked into gear. They checked other lines were secure and began rescue efforts.

By pure chance outside, the ONLY police motorbike equipped with an experimental radio set had just pulled up.

The officer witnessed the accident, called it in. Officers and ambulances were soon inbound.

(The latter would prove an unexpected issue. More in a bit)

MOST critically, on one train were some @usairforce officers. Realising the unfolding scale of the disaster, they asked the police if they would let them request official support from the USAF hospital at Ruislip.

The police agreed. Their superiors instantly accepted the request

The 494th Medical Group was forged in the fires of WW2. The USAF military hospital at Ruislip was brand new, and built to deal with wartime experience.

They prepared for casualties, BUT ALSO scrambled 7 doctors and 1 nurse in an ambulance to the scene as as quick response force.

That team was under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Weiderman. Weiderman was a WW2 veteran medic. His doctors and nurse were trained in combat medicine.

And the MOMENT they got to Harrow, they realised they needed to treat it like combat, not an accident.

Because about now it became clear that the early call for ambulances had a hidden cost: the ambulances had arrived TOO QUICKLY.

They naturally grabbed wounded as they arrived and left for hospitals

But now serious cases were being pulled out. And the ambulances weren't back yet

So Weiderman's team instantly slipped into combat mode. They did something that had been honed, tried and tested by all the combatant armies in WW2. But was then mostly unheard of in civilian healthcare.

They triaged casualties. And they stablised and treated at the scene.

Weiderman and his combat docs could treat because they'd had the presence of mind to grab a lot of modern portable kit and supplies when they'd left Ruislip.

But their ability to do so also depended on them being able to trust one person:

Nursing Lieutenant Abbie Sweetwine.

Weiderman established a triage station on the platforms. That station was largely run by his single nurse: The Floridian Lieutenant Abbie Sweetwine.

She triaged cases for the USAF medical team and, alongside them, helped put in place a system for prioritising ambulance pick-ups.

It was while doing this that she realised another issue developing: The lack of information hospitals would be getting about these patients.

She created a letter system for priority and prior treatment that was communicated to hospitals. Then she marked it on patients heads.

This meant that hospitals knew, from the lipstick scrawled on patient's heads, whether they'd been stabilised already in some way ('X'), been given morphine ('M') or more. All info the hospitals needed to treat the incoming patients properly.

The actions of the USAF team, and Sweetwine in particular that day, visibly and demonstrably (in the accident reports) saved lives.

They proved that in a lot of circumstances, "scoop and run" killed people. You needed ambulances, and people on them, who could "stay and play."

Voices in UK healthcare immediately pushed for change. They'd seen how ambulances SHOULD be: Triage. Treat.

And when more people died after the Lewisham disaster, those voices became an unsilenceable roar:

"Look at HARROW. Copy this. NOW."

It happened. The paramedic was born.

If you've ever been saved by the prompt actions of the UK ambulance service. If you know anyone who has. Then the path of that life saved traces directly back to the Harrow disaster.

To Weiderman and his doctors. To Sweetwine.

And on that note: we're not done here. Not yet.

Go back and watch the video of the aftermath I posted at the beginning of this thread. It's cool i know you skipped it. 😆😜

At about 1min11sec you'll see Weiderman's team. And you'll see Abbie Sweetwine.

Sweetwine wasn't just a Floridian.

She was African-American.

Sweetwine was one of the vanishingly small percentage of black nurses then serving in the USAF.

By chance that day, the person who VERY VISIBLY saved the lives of a lot of Londoners. The person they, and the papers, came to refer to as the "Angel of Platform Six" was black.

That made a difference. By carrying out her duty, and through saving lives at Harrow & Wealdstone, Lieutenant Sweetwine put another visible (at the time) crack in the ridiculous notion that somehow her ethnicity made her less capable at her job than others.

Sweetwine is mostly forgotten today. She shouldn't be.

She was a pioneer and a hero. One who would eventually rise to be a USAF Mayor and see service in Korea and Vietnam, before leaving in frustration at the discrimination that prevented her climbing higher.

Abbie Sweetwine died at 87. She is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. It is my hope to visit her there on 8/10/22. The 70th anniversary of Harrow.

I want to lay a wreath, and tell her about everything she helped change.

She's one of my heroes.
findagrave.com/memorial/49488…

POSTSCRIPT: There are a lot more railway impacts from Harrow too, but they're not really explainable in thread.

But if you have an interest in how Automatic Warning Systems (AWS) became mandatory, something that's also saved lives dig into my long read. londonreconnections.com/2012/angels-an…

Harrow also, by chance, happened on exactly the same day that the council was debating getting rid of its wartime civilian emergency response setup in the town hall next door.

The accident pretty much ended any doubt as to whether those bodies should exist in local government.

Anyway. If you've enjoyed this thread then please share the FIRST TWEET. Spread the word.

Normally I'd include a Kofi link, but for this one if you've enjoyed, please donate to @TASCharity, who provide support to ambulance staff when they need it. theasc.org.uk

/END

ADDENDUM: People wanted more on the consequences of Harrow. So here, from the records, is just one of the ways it impacted a family, and the harsh choice it forced on a young man. One I hope I never have to face.

https://twitter.com/garius/status/1446792453198073862