[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: Primary Response to Medical Emergencies
Wade -
I can't speak for licensees, but I can tell you that state radiological emergency response organizations such as mine (at least the ones that I'm familiar with) are training first responders that the medical condition of the patient, particularly if there is a life-threatening condition such as heart attack (as mentioned in your e-mail) ALWAYS takes precedence over contamination control concerns. I can think of only a few situations where the radiological conditions to the emergency responders would be a serious concern ... one example would be a continuing criticality such as in Tokai Mura ... and even in THAT situation, the doses to the responders were relatively insignificant as compared to the medical conditions of the patients. There's plenty of time to clean up after the patient is stable ...
To quote a friend of mine at REAC/TS ... "we don't get any points for clean corpses".
Jim Hardeman
Jim_Hardeman@mail.dnr.state.ga.us
>>> Wade A Sewell <Wade.A.Sewell@dupontpharma.com> 4/21/2000 6:34:32 >>>
--Boundary_(ID_zT10vO4ZOerpfPL7DTJDCg)
Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN
Dear Radsafers,
I am curious what your Emergency Response Team has adopted as policy for responding to medical emergencies involving contamination. I am specifically interested in radioactive contamination of the victim(s) or area where the are "down".
Will they respond immediately to life threatening medical emergencies, such as heart attack, regardless of radioactive contamination? Or, do they wait for the Radiation Safety Office staff (or other knowledgeable and authorized individual) to tell them that it is OK to enter the area and treat the patient? Will they only treat the patient after decontamination?
What is your policy for the transportation of contaminated individuals to the hospital? Decon first?
Primarily I am interested in radioactive contamination events that are typical of biomedical research, dealing with 1 mCi or less of H-3, C-14, P-32, P-33, S-35, or I-125.
Please send all responses directly to me.
Thank you!
Wade Sewell
wade.a.sewell@dupontpharma.com
--Boundary_(ID_zT10vO4ZOerpfPL7DTJDCg)--
************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html
************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html