Texas hospital finds blood donors through Twitter

Fort Hood shooting brings hundreds to donate and talk on social media

On Nov. 5, while the public pressed the refresh button on news sites searching for updates about the shooting at Fort Hood, and as ambulances howled toward central Texas hospital Scott & White, the hospital’s Web and creative editor, Aaron Hughling, was tweeting.

Down the hall, Hughling’s PR colleagues and hospital executives were sitting in the hospital’s makeshift crisis command center, fielding phone calls from the media. Downstairs, emergency room doctors were treating 10 of the most seriously wounded shooting victims. (As of Nov. 17, three patients from Fort Hood still remain at Scott & White, all in fair condition. The rest have been transferred or released.)

At 3:10 p.m., Hughling wrote, “We are watching hashtags #fthood and #forthood for updates on the mass casualty incident on Ft Hood today.” He then sent three tweets within 30 minutes with a link to a statement from the hospital, a phone number for the media, and a note that the ER was closed to all but patients from Fort Hood.