PHILADELPHIA — A vehicle fleeing a Philadelphia hospital after dropping off a gunshot victim Saturday morning struck three nurses who were trying to treat the patient, seriously injuring one, authorities said.
The silver Jeep Cherokee had just dropped the man off in the ambulance bay at Penn Presbyterian Hospital around 4:30 a.m. Saturday when it struck the three nurses as he fled, police said.
One 36-year-old nurse was admitted in critical condition with facial injuries and internal bleeding. A 37-year-old nurse with head injuries and a 51-year-old nurse with head and back injuries were listed in stable condition, police said.
The 28-year-old shooting victim arrived with multiple gunshot wounds and may have suffered head injuries in the collision, police said.
Penn Medicine told WCAU-TV that the incident was “devastating,” but staff “continued to work to save the gunshot victim and care for all of our other patients, even as their own colleagues suffered and were treated.”
Officials said they were providing support to the victims and their families and cooperating with police, who are investigating both the crash and the earlier shooting.
Philadelphia City Council Member Jamie Gauthier said in a statement that staff at the area’s only Level One trauma center “face horrific pain and suffering every day to care for us during the most traumatic moments of our lives.”
“It is incomprehensible to me that someone would drive his car into our neighbors who were accused of healing,” he said.