MEDICAL SURVIVAL OF VICTIMS OF TERRORISM (FROM TERRORISM - THREAT, REALITY, RESPONSE, 1979, BY ROBERT H KUPPERMAN AND DARRELL M TRENT - SEE NCJ-59747)

• NCJ Number: 59751
• Author(s): M E SILVERSTEIN
• Date Published: 1979
• Length: 44 pages
• Corporate Author: Atlanta Crime Analysis Team
• Publication Format: Document
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

TO PROVIDE FOR THE TREATMENT OF MASS CASUALTIES, MEDICAL ASPECTS OF COUNTERTERRORISM ARE DISCUSSED, INCLUDING A GENERAL MEDICAL-RESCUE MODEL SYSTEM AND DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS OF TYPES OF INJURIES AND CASUALTIES.

Abstract

ACCORDING TO BRITISH STUDIES, THE FOLLOWING PROBLEM AREAS HAVE BEEN INADEQUATELY ADDRESSED BY EXISTING SYSTEMS OF RESCUE AND EMERGENCY CARE: THE LARGE POPULATION SIZE SUBJECT TO ATTACKS IN URBAN GUERRILLA WARFARE, CREATING SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN ALL AREAS OF MEDICAL CARE; THE PREEXISTENCE OF DISEASE AMONG THE WIDE-RANGING TYPE OF PERSONS FOUND IN TARGET GROUPS, UNLIKE THE PREDOMINANTLY YOUNG AND HEALTHY PERSONS CONSTITUTING THE MILITARY CASUALTY GROUP; PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS AMONG PERSONS WHO WITNESSED THE ATTACK OR WHO FEAR A POTENTIAL ATTACK ON THEMSELVES; SITE ELEMENTS, SUCH AS TRAFFIC PATTERNS AND GEOGRAPHICAL RELATIONSHIP OF NEARBY HOSPITALS; AND SPECIFIC PATTERNS OF EARLY INJURY. SOME OF THE INJURIES DESCRIBED, IN TERMS OF THEIR MEDICAL EFFECTS, INCLUDE BOMB BLAST AND SMALL ARMS MISSILE INJURIES (I.E., BURNS, OPEN THORACIC WOUNDS, INJURIES OF THE THORAX, LUNG, AND HEART, HEAD AND NECK INJURIES, BLAST INJURY TO THE EAR), FIRE BOMBS AND FIRE STORMS, MICROBIOLOGICAL WEAPONS, NUCLEAR WEAPONS, AND AIRBORNE OR AIR-DISBURSED NOXIOUS CHEMICAL AGENTS (LETHAL AGENTS, INCAPACITATING AGENTS, AND HARASSMENT AGENTS). DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING EVIDENCE OF THE INADEQUACY OF EXISTING SYSTEMS OF RESCUE AND THE PHILOSOPHICAL FEASIBILITY OF MAXIMUM PRESERVATION OF LIFE SUPPORT THE DEVELOPMENT OF A MEDICAL-RESCUE MODEL SYSTEM, A NATIONAL SYSTEM CAPABLE OF RAPID MEDICAL RESCUE RESPONSE TO SINGLE OR MULTIPLE TERRORISM ATTACKS TO PROVIDE A MAXIMUM PRESERVATION OF VICTIM LIFE AND A MINIMUM OF FEAR AND PANIC. THE GENERAL OPERATION OF THE MODEL AND THE ELEMENTS CONTAINED IN A NATIONAL NETWORK SYSTEM FOR MASS CASUALTIES ARE DESCRIBED, WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THE APPLICABILITY OF THIS SYSTEM TO ALL DISASTERS AND MASS CASUALTY SITUATIONS. TABULAR DATA, A CHART OF THE MODEL SYSTEM, AND A BIBLIOGRAPHY ARE PROVIDED. (WJR)