Almost seven years after the September 11 terrorist attacks, U.S. emergency rooms are allegedly not prepared to deal with a dire situation like a suicidal bomb, as a report from the House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee brings out.

The survey included seven major cities (New York, Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago, Houston, Denver and Minneapolis) and took place on Tuesday, March 25, at 4.30 p.m. local time.

Emergency rooms in the Level I trauma centers surveyed in Washington were operating at 15% over their capacity. In case of any new patients, they would have been held in hallways, waiting rooms and offices. There’s no need to foreshadow what the situation would be in case of a mass-casualty occurrence.

The purpose of this survey was to conclude whether American hospitals would have the capacity to deal with a great number of casualties resulting from an eventual terrorist attack. The drawn conclusion is not very hopeful.

The attack that took place in Madrid in 2004 had an alarming number of victims - 996 victims were transported to 15 hospitals and 270 were taken to a single hospital for emergency care.

“Not one of the seven cities had sufficient treatment spaces in emergency rooms of their Level I trauma centers to handle the volume of victims seen at a single Madrid hospital,” as noted in the report.

It is very troubling, as the injuries that individuals have after a terrorist attack are numerous, diverse and serious. Such an event would therefore be synonymous to a real crisis.

Bruce Hoffman of Georgetown University sketched out the condition an individual who went through an onrush would have: “penetration wounds from small projectiles that damage soft tissues and vital organs; fracture bone and sever arteries and nerves; blast effects on lungs, ear drums, and other organs, and severe burns,” as quoted by Reuters.

“The best way to save as many lives as possible after a terrorist bombing or suicide attack is for physicians and other health care workers to undergo intensive training and preparation before an attack,” he added according to the same source.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, thinks the cutback for the Medicaid program would only worsen the situation, as ABC News notes. In contrast to his opinion stand Michael Chertoff and Michael Leavitt, who do not deem that hindering the cuts would lead to any improvement of the situation.