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BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — The night tornadoes swept through Alabama brought in more hurt patients than Children’s Hospital of Alabama had ever seen at once, officials at the Birmingham hospital said Thursday.

Sixty youngsters from across the state have been treated at the hospital, most of them in the hours immediately following the deadly storms. Fourteen remain; 10 are in critical care and many have also lost parents or siblings.

“In the long history — now, the almost 100 years — of Children’s Hospital, it was the largest number of trauma patients and the most acutely injured patients,” said CEO Mike Warren.

Margaret Winkler, head of the hospital’s critical care team, said it was like having dozens of fatal traffic accidents pour in the same night. Victims came from Tuscaloosa, Cullman, Pleasant Grove, Birmingham, Gadsden, Fort Payne, Cordova and elsewhere. Other hospitals around the state reported similar numbers of patients.

“This was one after another after another,” Winkler said. “It was dramatic and then it was just so tragic.”

One of the patients included in the total count arrived dead and another, an infant from Tuscaloosa whose name was not released, died at the hospital.

Emergency room doctor Steve Bailey and others credited Children’s emergency preparedness for the success of operations. Bailey said that it could have been much worse if, like other hospitals in hard-hit areas, Children’s had lost power or telephone communications.

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