Posted to the Metropolitan Police Department’s email lists this morning: an exciting volunteer opportunity!

4 DC hospitals in Washington (Washington Hospital, Children’s, National Rehab and Veterans Affairs) are conducting an exercise involving a dirty bomb scenario and we will need about 100 victim volunteers. Please feel free to announce this volunteer opportunity through your network and ask that those interested in volunteering contact me prior to March 26.

The volunteer duty would be on Friday, April 4, 2008, 008:30-12:30. Refreshments would be provided.

Volunteers will receive a briefing and receive “role assignments” describing their injuries and condition. Some would be bomb blast victims, some would be existing patients requiring transfer due to facility damage, and some would be designated as “contaminated” and would require decontamination via a “dry run’ through the VA hospital’s Decontamination Shower System. A few may play roles as concerned friends or family members.

Please contact me at via e-mail (preferred) or phone if you wish to register as an exercise volunteer. Provide your cell phone number or other contact number. We request that if you have a cell phone that you bring it on the day of the exercise so we can communicate.

I will contact all those who register a week or so prior to the exercise.

Stephen Mabley, MS, CIH
Area Emergency Manager
Emergency Management Strategic Healthcare Group (EMSHG)
Veterans Affairs Capitol Health Care Network (VISN 5)
50 Irving Street, NW, Washington, DC 20422
Steve.Mabley@va.gov

In all seriousness, emergency preparedness exercises are really important. Still, we’re having a lot of fun imagining the sort of folks who would be the most excited to play a “bomb blast victim.” Can we come equipped with our own fake blood and simulated radiation burns?