PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A vehicle fleeing a Philadelphia hospital after dropping off a gunshot victim early Saturday struck three nurses who were trying to treat the patient, injuring one critically, authorities said.
The silver Jeep Cherokee had just dropped off the man in the ambulance bay at Penn Presbyterian Hospital about 4:30 a.m. Saturday when it hit the three male nurses as it fled, police said.
One 36-year-old nurse was listed 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 sustained a head injury in the hit-and-run, police said.
Penn Medicine told WCAU-TV that the incident was "devastating" but staff "continued working to save the gunshot victim and care for all our other patients even as their own colleagues were suffering and being treated."
Officials said they were providing support for the victims and their families and cooperating with police, who are investigating both the hit-and-run 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 daily "come face-to-face with gruesome pain and suffering to care for us during the most traumatic moments of our lives."
"It is unfathomable to me that someone would drive their car into our neighbors charged with healing," he said.
