J Korean Med Sci.  2006 Feb;21(1):143-150. 10.3346/jkms.2006.21.1.143.

Experience of a Korean Disaster Medical Assistance Team in Sri Lanka after the South Asia Tsunami

• Kwak YH
• Shin SD
• Kim KS
• Kwon WY
• Suh GJ

• KMID: 2157798
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2006.21.1.143

Abstract

On 26 December 2004, a huge tsunami struck the coasts of South Asian countries and it resulted in 29,729 deaths and 16,665 injuries in Sri Lanka. This study characterizes the epidemiology, clinical data and time course of the medical problems seen by a Korean disaster medical assistance team (DMAT) during its deployment in Sri Lanka, from 2 to 8 January 2005. The team consisting of 20 surgical and medical personnel began to provide care 7 days after tsunami in the southern part of Sri Lanka, the Matara and Hambantota districts. During this period, a total of 2,807 patients visited our field clinics with 3,186 chief complaints. Using the triage and refer system, we performed 3,231 clinical examinations and made 3,259 diagnoses. The majority of victims had medical problems (82.4%) rather than injuries (17.6%), and most conditions (92.1%) were mild enough to be discharged after simple management. There were also substantial needs of surgical managements even in the second week following the tsunami. Our study also suggests that effective triage system, self-sufficient preparedness, and close collaboration with local authorities may be the critical points for the foreign DMAT activity.

Keyword

Natural Disasters; Relief Work; Patient Care Team; Wounds and Injuries

MeSH Terms

Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Asia, Southeastern
Child
Child, Preschool
Emergency Medical Services/organization & administration/statistics & numerical data
Female
Geography
Humans
Infant
Infant, Newborn
International Cooperation
Korea
Male
*Medical Assistance
Middle Aged
*Natural Disasters
Patients/classification/*statistics & numerical data
*Relief Work
Retrospective Studies
Sri Lanka

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Two air-inflatable tents. The left tent was a surgical unit and the right one a medical unit. These tents were inflated by two electric generators within 10 min.

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  Fig. 2 The southern province of Sri Lanka where the Korean disaster medical assistance team served. Six towns were helped; Weligama, Mirissa (between Weligama and Matara), Matara, Thalalla (near Dondra), Hambantota, and Dikwella. The distance from Weligama to Hamabantota is about 100 km.

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  Fig. 3 Patients flow and relationship between of the parts of the field clinic. Arrows: the guided flow of the patients.

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  Fig. 4 Distribution of the enrolled patients by gender and age group.

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  Fig. 5 Patients flow according to the areas and the departments. GS, general surgery; OS, orthopedic surgery; IM, internal medicine; PD, pediatrics; DM, dermatology.

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  Fig. 6 Distribution of chief complaints.

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  Fig. 7 Correlation between the percent of the injured out of total daily patients and the date since the Tsunami disaster (r=-0.75, p=0.052 by Spearman's rho).

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