On July 4, 2021, a Philippine C-130 military plane carrying 104 personnel crashed in Patikul, Sulu after attempting to land at Jolo Airport, killing 53 individuals and injuring 50 others, both on board and on the ground. Some of the injured sustained multiple injuries, including fractures and burns. This incident triggered a swift response from various agencies. Mass casualty incidents, including those with multiple burn-injured patients, pose significant challenges to health care systems and can lead to high morbidity and mortality rates.1 2 3 Burn injuries, which account for at least 200,000 deaths annually, are a major global public health issue, particularly in low-resource settings, and can easily overwhelm the limited burn resources available.4 5 6 Efficient management of mass casualty incidents, proper triage decisions, and sound health care planning are crucial for optimizing patient outcomes and matching potential needs with available resources.7 Burn mass casualty incidents (BMCI) are incidents that involve at least three burn victims. These incidents, whether due to natural or human-caused accidents, can occur anywhere and anytime. The injuries are unpredictable and involve a large number of victims, requiring a significant consumption of logistics and medical attention. Medical response tasks in massive burn injuries are much more challenging than those required in separate burn incidents due to the unexpected nature of the events and the simultaneous involvement of a large number of patients. Such situations require the immediate mobilization of a significant number of personnel, resources, and facilities to address upcoming issues. In this article, we describe the management of BMCIs based on our experiences in responding to the Patikul incident. We elucidate the strategies that are put into action and offer insights aimed at improving protocols for handling BMCIs in the future. Our goal is to contribute to the body of knowledge in this field and aid in the development of more effective responses to such critical situations.
Mass Casualty Incidents ; Burns

A burn mass casualty incident (BMCI), an incident that involves at least three burn victims with severe injuries,1 presents several unique challenges. In a mass casualty event, between 25 and 30 percent of those injured can sustain moderate-to-severe burn injuries.2 Management of burn patients necessitates a significant amount of health resources and logistical support, along with prompt and high-quality care to optimize the functional and cosmetic outcomes of severely injured patients. While some developed countries have sound disaster management plans, many countries where most BMCIs occur lack such well-established plans.3 The effective management of BMCIs is crucial for positive patient outcomes. Given resource scarcity, especially in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas, comprehensive mitigation and preparedness strategies are essential. These strategies must address worst-case scenarios that may challenge the existing internal protocols, especially at the local level.4 The surge in health care facility capacity during BMCIs can quickly overwhelm local and regional resources, from prehospital care to specialized burn centers. In the Philippines, disaster response levels and adequacy may vary widely among different regions and local government units (LGU). While the Department of Health has issued guidelines for health emergency and disaster response management,5 there are currently no policies or guides on specifically addressing preincident planning for BMCIs. The aim of this article is to recommend policies that will potentially improve the current health care approach to BMCIs.
Mass Casualty Incidents ; Burns

The fatality rate of a disaster is associated with the impact of the disaster and the case fatality rate. The severity of the disaster can be reduced by an efficient disaster management system, and the capacity of the trained disaster response system can lower the case mortality rate. The severity of a disaster is determined by the interaction of risk factors and vulnerabilities in a particular area, and the case-fatality rate is determined by a correlation between the capacity of the disaster response team and the survivability of the victims. The disaster management system and the disaster response system are complementary and interconnected, and the efficiency of cooperation and linkage can be improved by developing well organized digitalization. Efforts to increase the survival rate of victims through digitalization has been a continued process and new alternatives are being developed in accordance with the advances in information and communication technology to manage disaster risk factors and to improve disaster response capabilities. However, in case of mass casualty incidents, it is still difficult to reduce the case mortality rate by securing the survival time limit of the victims. Often, sharing the disaster scene information and communicating with the victim is not feasible. A lack of ability to provide real time escape route to exit or safe zone proves fatal. The communication revolution of the next generation wireless wide area network called 5G can overcome the disruption of communication network during the disaster incidents. It can enable real time tracking of the position of victim and linking the victims with its rescuers. Hence, it is possible to increase the survival rate of victims during mass casualty incidents by associating information and communication technologies with appropriate disaster management and response strategies, real-time information exchange and education and training of rescuers and citizens.
Disasters ; Education ; Emergencies ; Mass Casualty Incidents ; Mortality ; Risk Factors ; Survival Rate ; United Nations

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the characteristics of the emergency medical services (EMS) response and clinical information on mass casualty chemical incidents in Korea. METHODS: This retrospective observational study analyzed the integrated data of the EMS rescue records and EMS-treated severe trauma registry from January 2012 to December 2013. Two databases were integrated using the unique accident identification number. Chemical incidents were defined by an in-depth review of the EMS rescue records according to a previous study. Mass casualty incidents were defined as more than 6 injured individuals. The rescue, EMS, and hospital variables of mass casualty chemical incidents were analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 8 mass casualty chemical incidents and 73 patients were included. The mean responded rescue vehicles and EMS vehicles were 2.4 and 3.5, respectively. The 4 incidents were an oil spill due to traffic accidents and most patients suffered minor trauma. A carbon monoxide leak caused the largest number of patients (23 people). The explosion caused by flammable polyethylene leaks showed the highest severity. In that explosion, the mortality rate was 40% and 8 patients had a disability at discharge. CONCLUSION: This study evaluated the characteristics of the EMS response and clinical information on mass casualty chemical incidents in Korea.
Accidents, Traffic ; Carbon Monoxide ; Chemical Hazard Release* ; Emergency Medical Services ; Explosions ; Humans ; Korea ; Mass Casualty Incidents* ; Mortality ; Observational Study ; Petroleum Pollution ; Polyethylene ; Retrospective Studies

PURPOSE: To investigate and document a disaster medical response during the collapse of the Gyeongju Mauna Ocean Resort gymnasium, which occurred on February 17, 2014. METHODS: The official records of each institution were verified to select the study population. All the medical records and emergency medical service records were reviewed by an emergency physician. Personal or telephonic interviews were conducted without a separate questionnaire if the institutions or agencies crucial to disaster response did not have official records or if information from different institutions was inconsistent. RESULTS: One hundred fifty-five accident victims, who were treated at 12 hospitals mostly for minor wounds, were included in this study. The collapse killed 10 people. Although the news of the collapse was disseminated in 4 minutes, it took at lease 69 minutes for a dispatch of 4 disaster medical assistance teams to take action; 4.5% of patients were treated on-site, 56.7% were transferred to 2 nearest hospitals, and 42.6% were transferred to hospitals with poor preparation to handle disaster victims. CONCLUSION: In the collapse of the Gyeongju Mauna Ocean Resort gymnasium, the initial triage and distribution of patients were inefficient, with delayed arrival of medical assistance teams. These problems had also been noted in prior mass casualty incidents. Government agencies are implementing improvements, and this study could aid the implementation process.
Disaster Victims ; Disasters* ; Emergencies ; Emergency Medical Services ; Government Agencies ; Gyeongsangbuk-do ; Health Resorts* ; Humans ; Mass Casualty Incidents ; Medical Assistance ; Medical Records ; Social Networking ; Triage ; Wounds and Injuries

To effectively mitigate and reduce the burden of mass casualty incidents (MCIs), preparedness measures should be based on MCIs' epidemiological characteristics. This study aimed to describe the epidemiological characteristics and outcomes of emergency medical services (EMS)-assessed MCIs from multiple areas according to cause. Therefore, we extracted the records of all MCIs that involved > or = 6 patients from an EMS database. All patients involved in EMS-assessed MCIs from six areas were eligible for this study, and their prehospital and hospital records were reviewed for a 1-year period. The EMS-assessed MCIs were categorized as being caused by fire accidents (FAs), road traffic accidents (RTAs), chemical and biological agents (CBs), and other mechanical causes (MECHs). A total of 362 EMS-assessed MCIs were identified, with a crude incidence rate of 0.6-5.0/100,000 population. Among these MCIs, 322 were caused by RTAs. The MCIs involved 2,578 patients, and 54.3% of these patients were women. We observed that the most common mechanism of injury varied according to MCI cause, and that a higher number of patients per incident was associated with a longer prehospital time. The highest hospital admission rate was observed for CBs (16 patients, 55.2%), and most patients in RTAs and MECHs experienced non-severe injuries. The total number of deaths was 32 (1.2%). An EMS-assessed MCI database was established using the EMS database and medical records review. Our findings indicate that RTA MCIs create a burden on EMS and emergency department resources, although CB MCIs create a burden on hospitals' resources.
Accidents, Traffic/statistics & numerical data ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Biohazard Release/statistics & numerical data ; Chemical Hazard Release/statistics & numerical data ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Databases, Factual ; *Emergency Medical Services ; Female ; Hospitals ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Male ; Mass Casualty Incidents/*statistics & numerical data ; Middle Aged ; Retrospective Studies ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVE: To investigate and document the disaster medical response during the Gyeongju Mauna Ocean Resort gymnasium collapse on February 17, 2014. METHODS: Official records of each institution were verified to select the study population. All the medical records and emergency medical service run sheets were reviewed by an emergency physician. Personal or telephonic interviews were conducted, without a separate questionnaire, if the institutions or agencies crucial to disaster response did not have official records or if information from different institutions was inconsistent. RESULTS: One hundred fifty-five accident victims treated at 12 hospitals, mostly for minor wounds, were included in this study. The collapse killed 10 people. Although the news of collapse was disseminated in 4 minutes, dispatch of 4 disaster medical assistance teams took at least 69 minutes to take the decision of dispatch. Four point five percent were treated at the accident site, 56.7% were transferred to 2 hospitals that were nearest to the collapse site, and 42.6% were transferred to hospitals that were poorly prepared to handle disaster victims. CONCLUSION: In the Gyeongju Mauna Ocean Resort gymnasium collapse, the initial triage and distribution of patients was inefficient and medical assistance arrived late. These problems had also been noted in prior mass casualty incidents.
Disaster Victims ; Disasters* ; Emergencies ; Emergency Medical Services ; Gyeongsangbuk-do ; Health Resorts* ; Humans ; Mass Casualty Incidents ; Medical Assistance ; Medical Records ; Social Networking ; Triage ; Wounds and Injuries

A modern Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT) is a group of professional and para-professional medical personnel organized to provide rapid-response medical care during a disaster situation. DMAT is a part of the disaster response system that acts as a trained, mobile, self-contained medical team in the acute phase of a disaster to provide necessary services such as triage, treatment, and transportation of injured patients in the devastated disaster area. The timeliness of DMAT response is critical to the administration of medical care and reduction of immediate mortality in disaster. While the number of members in a DMAT may vary between different nations. A small-scale DMAT is often composed of five to six people and there is good reason to consider this an effective unit for early disaster medical responses. An adequate structure and training system should be provided for Korean DMAT development in the near future.
Disasters* ; Humans ; Mass Casualty Incidents ; Medical Assistance* ; Mortality ; Transportation ; Triage

Disasters, or mass casualty incidents, occurring in modern history differ from those occurring in even the recent past. In previous times, disasters were mostly the result of natural causes such as earthquakes or floods. Currently, multiple casualty incidents are often the result of human actions such as vehicular accidents involving many vehicles with multiple operators, passengers and collateral victims, terror attacks and acts of war, radiation accidents, toxic chemical releases, and pandemic infectious agent exposures. Especially, events involving accidental and intentional exposures of chemical, biological, radiological/nuclear materials, often abbreviated as CBR or CBRN events present unique challenges to the healthcare system in caring for the victims. In these mass casualty incidents, a fully comprehensive, coordinated team response involving many different components of the community healthcare system need to be mobilized to effectively meet the modern challenge of CBRN events. Necessary components of a modern emergency response include training for prompt triage, decontamination, detoxification, emergency medical treatment, as well as providing appropriate transport to the proper medical treatment facility. Meeting these challenges requires maintaining ongoing communications between agencies charged with meeting the disaster to allow acquisition of information and location for the patients, transfer the information to both the Central Medical Emergency Response Center and the designated hospital. While sharing this information was problematic in the past, modern wireless communications and information technologies provide convenient means for the rapid sharing of important patient data and current situational details. Finally, improving modern disaster response requires the development of a disaster response plan, ongoing training in implementing the plan including disaster scenario simulation, and budgeting to acquire the necessary equipment involved for the emergency response personnel to meet the presenting crisis.
Budgets ; Community Health Services ; Decontamination ; Delivery of Health Care ; Disasters* ; Earthquakes ; Emergencies* ; Emergency Medical Service Communication Systems ; Emergency Medical Services* ; Floods ; History, Modern 1601- ; Humans ; Mass Casualty Incidents ; Pandemics ; Radioactive Hazard Release ; Transportation of Patients ; Triage

Disasters are unpredictable and unavoidable. The definition of disaster is a serious disruption of the functioning of society, causing widespread human, material, or environmental losses that exceed the ability of affected society to cope using only its own resources. Disaster medicine is a discipline resulting from combination of emergency medicine and disaster management. The field of disaster medicine involves the study of subject matter from multiple medical disciplines, and disaster medicine presents unique ethical situations not seen in other areas of medicine. Disaster can be classified into two categories, natural disaster and manmade disaster, each type of disaster has its own characteristics. Disaster management has a cycle of 4 activities, preparedness, response, recovery, and prevention/mitigation. Disaster medicine specialists have a role in each part of this cycle. To achieve effective disaster response, the National Disaster Life Support Foundation suggests the DISASTER Paradigm(TM), which consists of detection, incident command, safety and security, assess hazards, support, triage and treatment, evacuation, and recovery.
Disaster Medicine ; Disaster Planning ; Disasters* ; Emergencies ; Emergency Medicine ; Humans ; Mass Casualty Incidents ; Specialization ; Triage