Chemical agent attack victims

Were a chemical agent attack to (Kcur, authorities would instruct citizens to either. seek shelter where they are and seal the premises or evacuate immediately. Exposure to chemical agents can be fatal. Leaving the shelter to rescue or assist victims can be a deadly decision. There is no assistance that the untrained can offer that would likely be of any value to the victims of chemical agents. 

One common characteristic of many chemical agents is that they tend to be relatively fast acting that is, victims begin to exhibit symptoms of distress within seconds to minutes after exposure to the agent. This almost-immediate showing of symptoms has implications for defensive strategies based on detection systems, since the chemical agent released in an attack would reach and produce a response... 

Federal response teams cannot be on site in time to save lives or treat victims. Local response personnel need, but cannot afford, the same assets and training as federal employees are now receiving. Haz-Mat mitigation is a local responsibility. Someone must be on scene at once to isolate the area of a chemical or biological agent attack, evacuate, and care for the injured and the dead, and deny further entry. Any and every chemical or biological attack will be a crime scene that has to be isolated and guarded. 

Eventually first responder personnel on scene will have to answer the basic question Do you have an attack or not Unlike exposure to chemical agents, exposure to biological agents does not require immediate removal of victims clothing and gross decontamination. With biological agents, inhalation is the most common route of entry to a victim s contamination. 

This chapter described the major epidemiological studies of populations who have been exposed to chemical warfare agents. Many of the studies of military populations have suffered fi om inaccurate exposure assessment and lack of clinical data. The studies in the past decade of the survivors of the sarin terrorist attacks provide the most comprehensive data to date on the scope of health outcomes associated with these exposures. These reports point to the need for longterm follow-up studies of victims following such events. The data from the terrorist events and the Gulf War when many troops believed they were exposed to chemical agents point to the prevalence of PTSD associated with real or threatened exposure. 

At the St. Luke s International Hospital, one of three cardiopulmonary arrest victims and two respiratory arrest patients recovered fully and have been socially rehabilitated. This is important and shows that triage in cases of chemical terrorism must be different from that used in large-scale natural disasters. In the latter case, if respiration does not resume after establishing an airway, then trauma victims are generally labeled with a black tag and not treated further (Hodgetts and Porter, 2004). However, in a chemical terrorism attack caused by a nerve agent, medical care should be actively provided to patients with cardiopulmonary or respiratory arrest recovery by such patients is clearly possible. 

When you begin your on-the-ground scene size-up, evidence that you are dealing with a chemical attack includes the presence of mists, smoke, fogs, or liquids at the scene. The victims may exhibit signs and symptoms of a chemical agent (Box 2-2). 

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