(A20) Injury Pattern and Disaster Plan for Landmines and Improvised Explosive Device Blast

Abstract

Landmines and improvised explosive device (IED) explosions induce bodily injuries through the primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary mechanisms of blast among civilians, mostly children which results in a complicated, multidimensional injury pattern. If > 80 percent of countries can ensure the security of their borders without using anti-personnel mines, surely India can too. A change in mindset and a change in defense doctrine are needed, as well as an UN-backed world body campaigning against the use of landmines to urge the Indian government to sign a global treaty to ban the weapons. An estimated four to five million anti-personnel mines exist in India, which is the sixth-largest stockpile in the world. Non-state armed groups in the central, southern, northern, and northeastern regions frequently have used anti-personnel mines and improvised explosive devices to target convoys of soldiers and civilians. Using historical, current research and related literature reviews, this study provides description about the types of explosion, the device, pattern of injury, prehospital and emergency department care, and challenges for the disaster plan. Hand amputation is the most common type of upper limb amputation (more common among the 7–18-year age group) and below-knee amputation is the most common type of lower limb amputation. Using these data, a focused disaster response for future attacks has been created. It includes the planning, monitoring, and coordination of all aspects by hospitals and the regional disaster system's plan—“upside-down” triage—the most severely injured arrive after the less injured, which bypass emergency medical services (EMS) and go directly to the nearest hospitals. Details about the nature of the explosion, potential toxic exposures and environmental hazards, and casualty location from police, fire, EMS, health department, and reliable news sources must be recorded.