A Long Night in the Emergency Department during the Baltimore, Maryland (USA) Riots.

No one in the emergency department (ED) expected it to be a busy night. In the days prior, Baltimore (Maryland USA) residents protested the death of Freddie Gray while he was in police custody. This day, a Monday, the day of his funeral, we were not expecting violent protests or riots. Unfortunately, this was not the case. The events of the evening left a permanent impression on most of us that would not soon dissipate. My charge nurse and I had each traveled to disaster zones before, such as Hurricane Katrina (Gulf Coast, USA; 2005) and Gaza (Palestine) during the Intifada. In each of these cases, our safety was far from guaranteed. However, that night was different. When the riots and violence encroached upon our hospital without warning, we had to ensure the safety of our entire department, staff, and patients from an unknown and unpredictable threat. Our hospital, a large academic medical center, was situated on the opposite side of town from where the protests began. In between treating patients for the usual Monday night emergency medical conditions, we began to hear reports of fires and looting that were moving closer and closer to our facility. Emergency pages sent to all hospital staff reported that armed, masked men were on the streets close to the hospital. Shortly thereafter, an officer came into the ED to be treated for eye injuries sustained when the windshield of his patrol car was smashed. At that moment, when injured officers appeared in riot gear and pages about armed, masked men were received, the situation suddenly became real for us.