Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

DISASTER MEDICINE AND PUBLIC HEALTH PREPAREDNESS - 1(2): 90-95 2007
© 2007 American Medical Association and Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
DOI: 10.1097/DMP.0b013e31815901dc
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Ablah, E.
Right arrow Articles by Subbarao, I.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Ablah, E.
Right arrow Articles by Subbarao, I.

Original Research and Critical Analysis

Regional Health System Response to the 2007 Greensburg, Kansas, EF5 Tornado

Elizabeth Ablah, PhD, MPH, Annie M. Tinius, BA, Kurt Konda, MA, Carolyn Synovitz, MD, MPH, FACEP and Italo Subbarao, DO, MBA

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr Elizabeth Ablah, University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita, 1010 North Kansas, Wichita, KS 67214 (e-mail: eablah{at}kumc.edu).

Background: On May 4, 2007 an EF5 tornado hit the rural community of Greensburg, KS, destroying 95% of the town and resulting in 12 fatalities.

Methods: Data was requested from the emergency medical services units that initially responded and the regional hospitals that received people injured in the tornado within 24 hours following the tornado. Requested data included patient age and sex, and injury severity score or ICD-9 codes. Critical mortality, or the number of deaths of critically injured patients, was also calculated.

Results: The extensive damage caused by the tornado effectively destroyed the infrastructure of the community and created enormous challenges for emergency medical services responders, who were unable to record any triage data. Area hospitals treated 90 patients, who had an average injury severity score of 6.4. Age was found to be related to injury severity, but no relationship between sex and injury severity was found. Critical mortality was found to be 18% for this event.

Conclusions: Injury severity score has seldom been used to analyze natural disasters, especially tornadoes, although such analysis is helpful for understanding the magnitude of the disaster, comparing to other disasters, and preparing for future incidents. Advanced warning and personal preparedness are important factors in reducing tornado-related injuries and deaths.

Key Words: tornado • injury severity score • critical mortality • age






HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 2007 by the American Medical Association.