When the alarm sounded at 12:45 p.m. on March 24, 1998, at St. Bernards hospital, Brenda Million assumed it was just another disaster exercise.

Seconds later, though, the 911 messaging system announced that someone had opened fire on students and teachers at Westside Middle School. They warned that the situation was not a drill.

Medical personnel quickly migrated to the emergency room from all areas of the hospital, and within minutes the department was filled with nearly 75 doctors.

Normally, only two doctors staff the department.


Nurse Brenda Million talks about treating victims of the Westside Middle School shooting in this Feb. 21, 2018 photo.

“As the victims came in, they already had a team of health care workers waiting for them,” said Million, a nurse who is now the vice president of Women’s and Children’s Services, Dialysis and Perioperative Services for the hospital.

Children and teachers had been shot in their heads, chests and stomachs. Bullet wounds ranged from shattered bones to severed arteries and ruptured colons.

Several were injured by falling or straining as they fled.