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Re: Primary Response to Medical Emergencies
A reference that comes to mind immediately is NCRP 65 (Management of
Persons Accidentally Contaminated with Radionuclides, 1980).
Immediate care is addressed on p. 31:
"When a life or death surgical emergency exists, the patient must receive
immediate life-saving first aid and transportation to a hospital regardless
of contamination, except as noted below. A hospital emergency room or
surgical suite can always be decontaminated after its use...""
The exception talks about a highly unlikely scenario involving a mangled
extremity contaminated with gamma-emitting foreign bodies (hundreds of
rad/h):
In such a case, if the general condition of the patient can be stabilized,
emergency amputation or extensive surgical debridement performed at the
site of the accident, in the nearest first aid station or at a
decontamination facility may be the only life-saving procedure."
Another more practical reference for emergency responders is the 2000
Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG2000, page 286 to 297, Radioactive
Materials guides under First Aid):
"Medical problems take priority over radiological concerns."
See:
Guide 161 Low Level Radiation, page 286 to 287
Guide 162 Low to Moderate Radiation, page 288 to 289
Guide 163 Low to High Level Radiation, page 290 to 291
Guide 164 Special Form/Low to High Level External Radiation, page 292 to
293
Guide 165 Fissile/Low to High Level Radiation, page 294 to 295
Guide 166 Corrosive (Uranium Hexafluoride/Water-Sensitive), page 296 to 297
DJWhitfill
Opinions expressed are mine and do not reflect official policies or
positions of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
"ruth_weiner"
<ruth_weiner@email To: Multiple recipients of list
.msn.com> <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
Sent by: cc:
radsafe@romulus.eh Subject: Re: Primary Response to Medical
s.uiuc.edu Emergencies
04/21/00 01:23 PM
Please respond to
radsafe
Dear Jim and RADSAFERs:
Do you have any documentation that I can cite for your statement 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 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..." etc? Anything that is published and
available to the public will do, even a state agency document if I could
call someone and get a copy.
Thanks for you help
Ruth F. Weiner, Ph. D.
505-856-5011
fax 505-856-5564
ruth_weiner@msn.com
----Original Message-----
From: Jim Hardeman <Jim_Hardeman@mail.dnr.state.ga.us>
To: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
Date: Friday, April 21, 2000 7:21 AM
Subject: 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".
>
>
>
!
>
!
>
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