Prehospital and disaster medicine
-
Prehosp Disaster Med · Mar 2009
Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: first documented experience in a Mexican urban setting.
Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is one of the leading causes of death in Mexico, but many survival and prognostic factors are unknown. The aim of this study was to assess out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in a Mexican city. ⋯ The poor survival rate in this study emphasizes the need to improve efforts in provider training and public education. Authorities must promote actions to enhance prehospital emergency services capabilities, shorten response times, and provide community education to increase the chances of survival for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest victims in Mexico.
-
Prehosp Disaster Med · Mar 2009
Ethical considerations for emergency care providers during pandemic influenza--ready or not...
When an infectious pandemic occurs in the United States, emergency care providers (ECPs) will be on the frontlines caring for infected, potentially infected, and non-infected patients. Logistically, the current emergency care system is not ready for a pandemic, but are the providers ethically ready? Some of the most difficult and challenging issues that will be raised during a pandemic will be ethical in nature. An ECP likely will be confronted with ethical values and value conflicts underlying restriction of liberty, duty to care, and resource allocation. This report summarizes the ethical concerns and challenges that ECPs face during an infectious pandemic, and raises ethical questions that may arise related to the role of an ECP as a healthcare provider and stakeholder.
-
Prehosp Disaster Med · Jan 2009
Review Historical ArticleMustard gas or sulfur mustard: an old chemical agent as a new terrorist threat.
Sulfur mustard is a member of the vesicant class of chemical warfare agents that causes blistering to the skin and mucous membranes. There is no specific antidote, and treatment consists of systematically alleviating symptoms. ⋯ Longitudinal studies of exposed victims show that sulfur mustard causes long-term effects leading to high morbidity. Given that only a small amount of sulfur mustard is necessary to potentially cause an enormous number of casualties, disaster-planning protocol necessitates the education and training of first-line healthcare responders in the recognition, decontamination, triage, and treatment of sulfur mustard-exposed victims in a large-scale scenario.
-
Prehosp Disaster Med · Jan 2009
Randomized Controlled TrialLaryngeal tube and intubating laryngeal mask insertion in a manikin by first-responder trainees after a short video-clip demonstration.
This study was performed in the Finnish Defense Forces to assess the potential applicability and value of short video clips as educational material to teach advanced airway management and as the first means of introducing the use of a laryngeal tube (LT) or an intubating laryngeal mask (ILMA) to inexperienced, military, first-responder trainees with no prior hands-on experience. ⋯ "Satisfactory" to "good" skill levels are achieved with the applied video-clip demonstration method, even in inexperienced first-responder trainees lacking previous hands on experience.
-
Prehosp Disaster Med · Nov 2008
Seatbelt use in Qatar in association with severe injuries and death in the prehospital setting.
Road traffic crashes (RTCs) are common in Qatar, and are now considered the third leading cause of mortality. In this study, the safety devices used by the Qatari public at the time of RTCs were assessed and the association between seatbelt use by vehicle occupants involved in RTCs and severe injury/death in the prehospital setting was determined. ⋯ Seatbelt use in Qatar is low. Seatbelts are protective: in the prehospital setting unbelted vehicle occupants involved in RTCs were nearly twice as likely to suffer severe injury or death compared to belted patients. Prehospital morbidity and mortality appears to be reduced significantly by the consistent use of seatbelts by the motoring population in Qatar.