General Information

Abstract

This chapter will set up the stage for the entire manual with the objective to better clarify its focus.

Planning to handle catastrophes should be according to the speed of the initial medical response necessary to handle the increased number of patients and the initial ratio between caregivers and patients.

From a medical perspective, the most difficult task is to respond to an event that occurred suddenly, without any notice and with a large number of injured or contaminated patients. The Madrid train bombings in 2004, where more than 2000 were injured, and the sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subway in 1995, where more than 5000 people were contaminated, are great examples of large-scale and unplanned mass casualty incidents.

Therefore, the definition and classification of disasters in this section are different than in other publications, and it will introduce the concept of sudden mass casualty incident (SMCI).

Most of this manual will explain, in detail, the medical planning and response for an SMCI.