Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T02:09:18.808Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Emergency with Resiliency Equals Efficiency – Challenges of an EMT-3 in Nepal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2018

Avraham Yitzhak ,
Ofer Merin ,
Jonathan Halevy  and
Bader Tarif
Avraham Yitzhak*
Affiliation:
Israel Defense Forces, Medical Corps, Tel Aviv, Israel
Ofer Merin
Affiliation:
Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel
Jonathan Halevy
Affiliation:
Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel
Bader Tarif
Affiliation:
Israel Defense Forces, Medical Corps, Tel Aviv, Israel
*
Correspondence: Col. Avraham Yitzhak, MD, MHA Surgeon General of the Southern Command Medical Corps, Southern Command Yosef Serlin St. 12 Beer Sheva, Israel E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The 7.8 MW (moment magnitude scale) earthquake that hit Nepal on April 25, 2015 caused significant casualties and serious damage to infrastructure.

The Israeli Emergency Medical Team (IEMT; later verified as EMT-3) was deployed 80 hours after the earthquake. A Forward Disaster Scout Team (FDST) that was dispatched to the disaster area a few hours after the disaster relayed pre-deployment information.

The EMT staff was comprised of 42 physicians. A total of 1,668 patients were treated. The number of non-trauma cases increased as the days went by. The hospitalization rate was 31%. Wound debridement procedures were the most common operations performed.

YitzhakA, MerinO, HalevyJ, TarifB. Emergency with Resiliency Equals Efficiency – Challenges of an EMT-3 in Nepal. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2018;33(6):673–677.

Keywords

earthquakeemergency medical teamIDFNepalType 3 EMT
Type
Field Report
Information
Prehospital and Disaster Medicine , Volume 33 , Issue 6 , December 2018 , pp. 673 - 677
Copyright
© World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Conflicts of interest: none

References

1. Government of Nepal. “Incident Report of Earthquake 2015.” Nepal Disaster Risk Reduction Portal. 2015. http://drrportal.gov.np/. Accessed March 1, 2018.Google Scholar
2. Basnyat, B, Tabin, C, Nutt, C, Farmer, P. Post-earthquake Nepal: the way forward. Lancet Glob Health. 2015;3(12):e731-732.Google Scholar
3. Tarif, B, Merin, O, Dagan, D, Yitzhak, A. Planning the unplanned: the role of a forward scout team in disaster areas. Int J Disaster Risk Reduct. 2016;19:25-28.Google Scholar
4. World Health Organization. Emergency Medical Teams - World Health Organization EMT Initiative. Published November 2016. http://www.who.int/hac/techguidance/preparedness/emergency_medical_teams/en/. Accessed March 1, 2018.Google Scholar
5. World Health Organization, Global Health Cluster. Classification and Minimum Standards for Foreign Medical Teams in Sudden Onset Disasters. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization; 2013:27-28.Google Scholar
6. Zhao, B. April 2015 Nepal earthquake: observations and reflections. Natural Hazards. 2016;80(2):1405-1410.Google Scholar
7. Kreiss, Y, Merin, O, Peleg, K, et al. Early disaster response in Haiti: the Israeli field hospital experience. Ann Intern Med. 2010;153(1):45-48.Google Scholar
8. Bar-Dayan, Y, Leiba, A, Beard, P, et al. A multidisciplinary field hospital as a substitute for medical hospital care in the aftermath of an earthquake: the experience of the Israeli Defense Forces Field Hospital in Duzce, Turkey, 1999. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2005;20(2):103-106.Google Scholar
9. Halpern, P, Rosen, B, Carasso, S, et al. Intensive care in a field hospital in an urban disaster area: lessons from the August 1999 earthquake in Turkey. Crit Care Med. 2003;31(5):1410-1414.Google Scholar
10. Bar-Dayan, Y, Beard, P, Mankuta, D, et al. An earthquake disaster in Turkey: an overview of the experience of the Israeli Defense Forces field hospital in Adapazari. Disasters. 2000;24(3):262-270.Google Scholar
11. Schwartz, D, Goldberg, A, Ashkenasi, I, et al. Prehospital care of tsunami victims in Thailand: description and analysis. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2006;21(3):204-210.Google Scholar
12. Bar-On, E, Abargel, A, Peleg, K, Kreiss, Y. Coping with the challenges of early disaster response: 24 years of field hospital experience after earthquakes. Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 2013;7(5):491-498.Google Scholar
13. Merin, O, Blumberg, N, Raveh, D, Bar, A, Nishizawa, M, Cohen-Marom, O. Global responsibility in mass casualty events: the Israeli experience in Japan. Am J Disaster Med. 2012;7(1):61-64.Google Scholar
14. WHO FMT. WHO Nepal Earthquake 2015 Foreign Medical Team Coordination Meeting. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization; 2015.Google Scholar
15. WHO. Updates Global Health Cluster. http://www.who.int/hac/global_health_cluster/fmt/en/. Accessed March 1, 2018.Google Scholar
16. Bar-On, E, Blumberg, N, Joshi, A, et al. Orthopedic activity in field hospitals following earthquakes in Nepal and Haiti: variability in injuries encountered and collaboration with local available resources drive optimal response. World J Surg. 2016.Google Scholar
17. Merin, O, Kreiss, Y, Lin, G, Pras, E, Dagan, D. Collaboration in response to disaster--Typhoon Yolanda and an integrative model. N Engl J Med. 2014;370(13):1183-1184.Google Scholar
18. Neumayer, E, Plümper, T. The gendered nature of natural disasters: the impact of catastrophic events on the gender gap in life expectancy, 1981–2002. Ann Am Assoc Geogr. 2007;97(3):551-566.Google Scholar
19. Merin, O, Ash, N, Levy, G, Schwaber, MJ, Kreiss, Y. The Israeli field hospital in Haiti--ethical dilemmas in early disaster response. N Engl J Med. 2010;362(11):e38.Google Scholar
20. Merin, O, Yitzhak, A, Bader, T. Medicine in a disaster area: lessons from the 2015 earthquake in Nepal. JAMA Intern Med. 2015;175(9):1437-1438.Google Scholar