the mass casualty timeline: 20+

Victims

A mass casualty incident (MCI), is any number of casualties that exceed the resources normally available from local resources. This is based upon available resources, number of injuries, and severity of injuries.

(“What Is a Mass Casualty Incident?” Classification of Social Media Platforms. Accessed February 27, 2019. https://delvalle.bphc.org/mod/wiki/view. php?pageid=89.)

A Mass Casualty Road Traffic Accident

on -site triage must be performed but is not there may only be one ambulance available a call to emergency services is placed this call may or may not be placed the roadways are difficult to navigate with a large vehicle there is a shortage of staff available to handle the accident a significant period of time is lost due to the magnitude of the crash & the lack of efficiency and size of the responding EMTs if that is the case, victims will be taken to a healthcare facility via staff is not trained to handle victims of such a large crash; improper handling can lead to more injury more victims than needed are transported to the hospital significant spatial challenges exist at facility causing overflow of patients

Resources

prelim care is given on site a significant period of time is lost due to the magnitude of the crash & the small size of the emergency vehicles

Victims

casualties >>resources

the ED at the facility might not have the services needed to save a victim

To provide post-collision care with efficiency and reduce the road traffic accident mortality rate, the response time for emergency healthcare must be reduced drastically. By improving upon the efficiency of emergency vehicles with respect to mass casualties, victims of road traffic accidents could obtain medical attention sooner.

When road traffic accidents begin to increase in size, it completely overwhelms the postcollision care system in Malawi which currently struggles to cater to 3-5 person road traffic accidents.3 This particularly challenging category of road traffic accidents is mass casualty road traffic accidents where the number of affected victims is significantly higher.