Just as a follow up, the ethical dilemmas mentioned in the articles title were ones of triage and patient priorities.
On Thu, Mar 4, 2010 at 11:03 AM, Jerry Johnson <[email protected]> wrote: > > I found this fascinating > > http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/NEJMp1001693?query=TOC > > *The Israeli Field Hospital in Haiti Ethical Dilemmas in Early Disaster > Response > *Within 48 hours after the massive earthquake that struck > Port-au-Prince, Haiti, > on January 12, the government of Israel dispatched a military task force > consisting of 230 people: 109 support and rescue personnel from the Israel > Defense Forces (IDF) Home Front Command and 121 medical personnel from the > IDF Medical Corps Field Hospital. The force's primary mission was to > establish a field hospital in Haiti. > > We landed in Port-au-Prince 15 hours after leaving Tel Aviv and began to > deploy immediately. The first patients arrived at our gates and were > admitted even before the hospital was fully built, within 8 hours after our > equipment arrived. In its 10 days of operation, the field hospital treated > more than 1100 patients. > > Our mission was to extend lifesaving medical help to as many people as > possible. The need to manage limited resources that fell far short of the > demands continuously presented us with complex ethical issues. Every > mass-casualty event raises ethical issues concerning the priorities of > treatment, but the Haiti disaster was exceptional in several ways. Haiti is > a poor country with minimal civil facilities, and the earthquake's > destruction of infrastructure left millions of people homeless and hundreds of > thousands in need of medical assistance. When we arrived, there was no > functioning authority coordinating the distribution of the available medical > resources. We were faced with the challenge of establishing an ethical and > practical system of medical priorities in a setting of chaos. > ... > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:312966 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
