Conference Proceedings - School of Nursing & Midwifery - Trinity ...

School of Nursing & Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin: 8 th Annual Interdisciplinary Research Conference
Transforming Healthcare Through Research, Education & Technology: 7 th – 9 th November 2007
Conference Proceedings
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BOSTON 1942: LESSONS LEARNED FROM CARE OF THE
COCOANUT GROVE NIGHTCLUB FIRE VICTIMS
Patricia Ann Connor-Ballard Ph.D, APRN-BC
Clinical Nurse Specialist in Adult Health and Assistant Professor of
Nursing
School of Nursing and Health Studies
Georgetown University
3700 Reservoir Road NW,
Washington, District of Columbia, USA 20057
Tel. 202-687-4670
Email pab43@georgetown.edu
In war-time 1942, as Boston and the rest of the country were
in a state of readiness for World War II, almost five hundred people
were killed as the result of a devastating fire in a popular Boston
nightclub. The Coconut Grove Nightclub fire remains one of the
worst catastrophes in United States history. The disaster rocked the
city of Boston, leaving thousands of relatives grieving during the
war-time holiday season while nurses and doctors spent arduous
hours caring for survivors at two major hospitals in Boston. Using a
nursing history approach, this paper will reconstruct the crisis faced
by the nurses and physicians of Boston City Hospital and
Massachusetts General Hospital in the care of victims from the 1942
Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire. Their response to the disaster played
a major role in the advancement of both American and international
burn care, forcing them to initiate creative methods and implement
newly-research interventions in caring for the large number of
severely-injured victims. The depth of the crisis demanded that
nurses at both sites assume broader roles and responsibilities, and
tested their ability to provide care under adverse conditions of
limited resources and personnel.
Care of the nightclub fire victims would lead to dramatic
improvements topical burn care, fluid resuscitation, skin grafting,
nutritional support in burn injury, recognition of smoke inhalation
injury, war-time readiness, and the development of specialized burn
care units. The disaster would also result in advances in disaster
preparedness and fire prevention.
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