Applying lessons from China's Wenchuan earthquake to medical rescue following the Yushu earthquake

Abstract

AbstractA 7.1‐magnitude earthquake hit China's Qinghai province—4000 meters above sea level, on April 14, 2010, just 702 days after Wenchuan Earthquake. As of 12:00 on April 19, the death toll stood at 1706, with 256 missing and 12,128 injured. West China Hospital (WCH), a regional state‐level hospital of the Ministry of Health, sent a medical team with relief supplies within the first hour after Yushu earthquake and the team rushed to Yushu in the first day participating golden seventy‐two hours rescue effort. The second day after Yushu earthquake, medical apparatuses and drugs valued at 5 million RMB were delivered to the rescue site and the second batch of medical team were positioned. Within 33 hours of the earthquake, 102 people, including 93 with earthquake‐related injuries and 9 armed police with severe altitude sickness, were send to WCH by air in four batches. WCH organized its medical rescue efforts based on first‐hand experience with medical rescue following Wenchuan earthquake, a series of evidence‐based diagnosis and treatment standards, and “four concentration principles,” namely concentrating the wounded, experts, resources, and treatments. Of the 93 cases with earthquake‐related injuries, 54 were seriously wounded, and in the five days immediately following the earthquake, 58 underwent operations and none died. The experience learned from Wenchuan earthquake have been used, improved and sublimated more rapidly, appropriately, and effectively in the Yushu earthquake medical rescue.