Medical losses- definition. Classification
Written by Anam Hussain
Definition:
Medical losses are all those in need of medical help due to the injuries resulting from the impact of DF.
The main role of DMS regarding medical losses is: to provide adequate medical assistance to a maximum number of casualties with the available insufficient medical forces and resources in the highly limited time frame. Because the requirements for medical assistance is overwhelming for the capacities of available medical means, it is necessary to classify medical losses to prioritize their needs.
Medical losses are overall classified based on:
- Type of injury
- Site of injury
- Severity of injury
- Priority
- Evacuation
- Types of injury Damaging factors
- Mechanical injuries (traumas): due to overpressure and shock. Cause medical losses with different types and localizations of traumatic injuries. Major health threats include bleeding (internal and external), tearing or damage to organs, severe pain syndrome. Medical losses require resuscitation and surgical aid has to be provided
- Heat injuries: such as burns and frosts are caused by thermal DF and also require surgical help. Thermal DF may also cause thermal shock which requires resuscitation
- Water- driven disaster injuries: such as drowned/drowning individuals. Drowned individuals fall into irreversible losses category. Drowning individuals who are rescued require intense and targeted therapeutic care because of frequent complications including: hypothermia, Acute respiration Distress syndrome, remote complications
- Injuries caused by toxic/chemical factor.
- Injuries caused by radiation (individuals injured this way are termed irradiated)
- Infections: Biological DF causes various infectious diseases. Infected patients should be isolated and treated in the AOD.
- Mental disorders
- When the resulting damage is due to two or more DFs, the medical losses are combined. The great majority of disasters inflict combined medical losses within the population
- Depending on site of injury:
- Head and neck
- Damage to chest area
- Damage to abdomen
- Locomotory injuries
- Depending on the severity of resulting damage:
- Life-threatening
- Victims require urgent, immediate assistance. Any delay leads to a fatal outcome (death). Injuries considered to be life threatening include:
- Those injured without respiratory or cardiac activity, those who are unconscious, individuals suffering from massive blood loss or profuse bleeding, those present with changed in heart rhythm as seen in ventricular fibrillation, tachycardia, bradycardia etc
- Severe injury
- This category classifies damage that is not a direct threat to life at the present moment, but has potential for rapid and easy development into life-threatening complications