Medical rescue action for large number of the sick and wounded in maritime disaster at sea / 中华急诊医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the effect of medical rescue of the Maritime Medical Team (Corps) for mass sick and wounded in maritime disaster so as to improve the medical rescue capacity for maritime disasters.Method The construction of maritime medical teams (corps) constituted with various numbers of 10, 15,50 and 120 team members, and the development of algorithm in practice were reviewed. In 68 maritime disasters from January 2003 to December 2009, 937 wounded were rescued by first-aid at sea. The patients were classified and given cardiopulmonary cerebral resuscitation, emergency operation, complication prevention, comprehensive treatment for seawater immersion wound and rapidly referred to hospitals. Results Of 937 patients, 872 survived (93%) and 65 died (7%). Of the dead, 16 died in one hour (25%), 43 died in 24 hours after injury (66%),andofthem, 61died of trauma (94% ) , 2 died of drowning and 1 died of poisoning. Conclusions Besides a good command of the features of mass sick and wounded, organization and program, treatment strategies and measures, the timely and effective assignment for on-site first aid at sea and safe transfer were very important for medical rescue of mass patients in maritime disaster. After the practice of maritime medical team (corps) in medical rescue during maritime disaster, the rapid response capability, cooperation and the quality of rescue were improved, and the experience of medical service of marine medical team (corps) was enriched.