Litter decontaminable

At the first echelons of care the organic staff is small, and dedicated personnel are not available to decontaminate casualties. Personnel from the supported unit must be assigned to the MTF for this purpose, to allow all medical care providers to care for casualties. These augmentees should be identified early and be thoroughly trained for these tasks. To most effectively decontaminate a patient on a litter, three—or possibly two—people are needed. The actual size of the augmented decontamination staff needed, however, will be severalfold larger than this number because the personnel will need rest periods, the frequency and duration of which will depend on the ambient temperature. 

Casualties who need care at the first-echelon MTF or who need stabilization before evacuation will be decontaminated on a litter by the decontamination staff, who are supervised by a medic. The first stage in this process is the removal of the outer garment, followed by removal of the casualty s battledress uniform, gloves, protective boots, and boots. The field medical card (FMC) is placed in a sealed plastic bag and will remain with the casualty until the information is copied onto another FMC personal effects will be bagged and tested later for contamination. 

Healthcare providers, as well as local officials, are concerned about the spread of contamination. The procedure for decontamination of litter patients can be found in Appendix E of U.S. Army Field Manual 8-10-4, Medical Platoon Leaders Handbook Tactics, Techniques and Procedures.8 The IRF will decontaminate patients and pass them across a hotline to the Medical Response Team (MRT). At that point the casualty should be completely clean. Civilian officials may require a casualty certified clean before moving the patient off the military installation. This requirement may be avoided through adequate coordination and training prior to an exercise or an actual chemical accident or incident. Building confidence in the civilian sector through education and communication is essential in providing a rapid and adequate medical response. 

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