The deadliest structural collapse in American history prior to 9/11 occurred right here in Kansas City at the Hyatt Regency in 1981 when two suspended walkways fell onto a tea dance in the hotel lobby, killing 114 and injuring 216. Emergency physician Dr. Joseph Waeckerle had just finished an eleven-hour emergency room work shift and was heading home when he received the call. Waeckerle arrived at the scene twelve minutes after the collapse and took charge, directing search and rescue as well as triage. It was an all-hands-on-deck situation, and soon the ERs of the metro’s hospitals began to fill with mangled survivors. It’s difficult to imagine that emergency responders in all that chaos would ask for the victims’ medical insurance cards. And that’s because most folks are decent, at least they were here in the heartland back in 1981. However, the emergency response, the ER physicians, the years of rehabilitation to come, and all the modern medicine to...(Read Full Article)