The Journal of burn care & rehabilitation
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The Advanced Burn Life Support Course has been used to train military physicians and nurses for more than 16 years. Although it useful for teaching the fundamentals of burn care, the course is designed for a civilian audience, covers only the first 24 hours of burn care, and presumes the availability of a burn center for patient transfer. In preparation for hostilities in Iraq, we developed several add-on modules to the standard Advanced Burn Life Support course to meet specific needs of military audiences. ⋯ Student feedback was largely positive and is being used for further course refinement. The Combat Burn Life Support Course is designed to augment, rather than replace, the Advanced Burn Life Support Course. Although intended for a military audience, the course material is equally applicable to civilian terrorist or mass casualty situations.
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J Burn Care Rehabil · Mar 2005
A regional burn center's response to a disaster: September 11, 2001, and the days beyond.
This report reviews the response of a regional burn center to the disaster that occurred in New York City at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. In addition, it assesses that response in the context of other medical institutions in the region. ⋯ The care rendered at this center was made possible by a "disaster-ready" facility and supplementation of personnel from the resources provided by The National Disaster Medical System. The patient outcomes at this center exceeded that as predicted by logistic regression analysis.
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J Burn Care Rehabil · Mar 2005
Managing a combined burn trauma disaster in the post-9/11 world: lessons learned from the 2003 West Pharmaceutical plant explosion.
At 1:37 pm on January 29, 2003, an explosion occurred at the West Pharmaceutical chemical plant in Kinston, North Carolina. The explosion killed three people at the scene and resulted in more than 30 admissions to area hospitals. ⋯ Ultimately, 7 of 10 patients survived (a mortality rate of 30%), and none were transferred to another trauma or burn center. This article analyzes the unique challenges that combined burn and trauma patients present during a disaster, critically examines the response to this disaster, describes lessons learned, and presents recommendations that may improve the response to such disasters in the future.
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This report describes the initial hospital and burn center management of a mass casualty incident resulting from an aircraft crash and fire. One hundred thirty soldiers were injured, including 10 immediate fatalities. Womack Army Medical Center at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, managed the casualties and began receiving patients 15 minutes after the crash. ⋯ All patients of the US Army Institute of Surgical Research survived to hospital discharge, and 34 returned to duty 3 months after the crash. The scenario of an on-ground aircraft explosion and fire approximates what might be seen as a result of an aircraft hijacking, bombing, or intentional crash. Lessons learned from this incident have utility in the planning of future response to such disasters.