MANCHESTER, UK — The suicide attack that took place as people were leaving the Ariana Grande concert at the Manchester Arena on May 22 injured more than 60 attendees and killed 22 people (12 of whom, between the ages of 8 and 50, have been identified as at May 24). Emergency services were quickly deployed in accordance with national recommendations put in place in the United Kingdom in the 2000s.
Like most other large cities in England, Manchester has a trauma care network. Launched in 2002, it defines referral hospitals on the basis of their ability to treat casualties rather than their proximity to the scene of the event.
Manchester’s three main trauma centers are the Salford Royal Infirmary, Wythenshawe Hospital, and the Manchester Royal Infirmary.
As soon as the attack was announced, the National Health Service’s North West Ambulance Service dispatched 60 ambulances to the scene of the attack at the arena. The ambulances were deployed to work with the advanced medical post (AMP), where 59 people were taken in, triaged, and treated. Damage control principles were employed, starting at the scene of the attack, such as the use of windlass tourniquets for bleeding control (especially in cases of lower-limb trauma).
The victims were then taken by ambulance to eight local hospitals: 9 to Manchester Royal, 6 to Salford, 6 to Wythenshawe, 12 children under 16 to Manchester Children’s, 6 to Stepping Hill, 8 to Royal Bolton, 7 to Royal Oldham, and 5 to North Manchester.
In addition, family members drove about 20 children to the Manchester Children’s Hospital on their own.
Social Media on the Front Line
Because of the limits of telephone capacity observed during previous attacks, people turned to communicating via social media.
The ambulance services communicated with the population via Twitter, asking them to call emergency services only in a true emergency.
Emergency services personnel had to contact the referral hospitals by e-mail. Only health professionals who were contacted were to come to the hospitals, with their identification badge.
Teams responded in force to calls for volunteers, and individual messages of thanks were relayed on social media. Such was the case with the NHS Manchester Hospitals, including Royal Manchester Children’s, which is paying tribute to the personnel who devoted themselves to the injured and their families.
Niall Dickson, chief executive of the NHS, applauded its representatives, saying “that coordination with the other emergency services permitted a response to this major incident. It is at times like these that as a society we really appreciate how important the health service is in all our lives.”
The Royal College of Emergency Medicine also thanked all the healthcare services personnel in the Greater Manchester area.
To prevent psychological consequences among healthcare workers, the NHS immediately set up a professional psychological support service.
This article was originally published in the French edition of Medscape.
For more news, join us on Facebook and Twitter
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar