by Ian Chillag

Craig Preston has had quite a week.

He's the CEO of the tiny 25-bed San Juan Hospital in Utah. On Sunday night, his phone rang. A tour bus had rolled off the road in nearby Mexican Hat, Utah, and 26 patients, many seriously injured, were headed his way. Twenty-five beds, 26 patients.

"It pushed us to the limit. I won't say it was chaos, because that implies people were running around not knowing what to do. It was busy."

Preston implemented the hospital's emergency disaster plan, which meant calling in every available doctor and nurse, including reinforcements: physicians from a nearby hospital in Colorado. Every available bed was used. Patients were put in labor and delivery rooms.

"One thing that stands out...I went out back as the ambulances were coming in," he said. "We had to have had over twenty ambulances, and just to see the ambulances, just the number of them. We took them two at a time, as other ambulances lined up."

Out back, watching the patients come in two by two, he noticed road crews were clearing a path for the emergency vehicles through the snow. "They just heard the call on the radio. They heard what happened, and they just showed up and started helping with nobody asking them to. In a small community, people have a sense of response, and they come and make it easier."

Preston, like all the doctors and nurses, didn't leave until after the sun came up. Patients were transfered to other hospitals as the week wore on. The last one left yesterday.