BACKGROUND Natural and manmade disasters are creating increasingly complex response challenges. The current U.S. emergency response model relies heavily upon the availability and expertise of highly trained public safety agencies. Too often, this leads the public and our leaders to assume that professional emergency medical care will be immediately available. Unfortunately, there are often dela...

Antarctica is one of the most remote regions on Earth. Mass casualty incident (MCI) responses in Antarctica are prone to complications from multiple environmental and operational challenges. This review of the current status of MCI risks and response strategies for Antarctica focuses on aeromedical evacuation, a critical component of many possible MCI scenarios. Extreme cold and weather, a lack...

OBJECTIVES Recent events have reiterated the need for well-coordinated planning for mass-casualty events, including those that involve children. The objective of this study was to document the preparedness of prehospital emergency medical services agencies in the United States for the care of children who are involved in mass-casualty events. METHODS A national list of all licensed prehospita...

Background: Mass Casualty incidents usually overwhelm the capabilities of any centre. It is an event whose nature is undetermined, unexpected and disrupts the normal trauma care in a hospital. Hospitals have established protocols to deal with mass casualty when it arises. Objectives: We sought to profile the presentations of mass casualty incidents and challenges in management in a regional tra...

conclusions there are a wide range of requirements for disaster aid. proper aid worker selection, frequent and continuous administration of workshops and drills, and cooperation and alignment of different governmental and private organizations are among the suggested initiatives. results four major themes emerged from the data; 1) psychological support, 2) appropriate clinical skills education,...

e427 All disasters are local, and a burn mass casualty incident (BMCI) is no different. During the past 150 years, burn disasters have typically been associated with three factors: a fire/explosion in a mass gathering, natural disaster, or act of war/terrorism. Although the incidence of fire/explosion disasters has decreased during the past 50 years, recent natural disasters and acts of war/ter...

This paper defines a specific plan which allows two separate institutions, with different capabilities, to function as a single receiving entity in the event of a mass casualty incident. The street between the two institutions will be closed to traffic and a two-phase process initiated. Arriving ambulances will first be quickly screened to expedite the most critical patients followed by formal ...