Fatality Management and Mass Gatherings Looking Back at the Route 91 Harvest Festival Shooting

On October 1, 2017, a gunman opened fire on more than 22,000 attendees of the Route 91 Harvest Country Music Festival in Las Vegas from a hotel room overlooking the festival. Twenty minutes later, the first of more than 200 patients began arriving at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, a Level II trauma center with 692 adult and pediatric beds. Sixteen patients treated at Sunrise died, including 14 who were considered dead on arrival. The incident is the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history with 61 fatalities, more than 400 individuals injured by gunfire, and hundreds more who suffered injuries while fleeing the scene. In this article, the authors highlight five primary fatality management lessons learned during this tragic incident.