Reflections of Children Victims of the Turkey Earthquake on February 6, 2023 to a Pediatric Emergency Department Far Away

Abstract

Objective: After the earthquake, which was called the ‘Disaster of the Century’, which affected 11 provinces in our country on February 06, 2023 we presented the reflection of the grievances of children who were not trapped under the rubble in a pediatric emergency clinic 700 km away from the region. This study was aimed to evaluate the pediatric ‘earthquake victims’ patients, who were not trapped under the rubble, applied to the pediatric emergency department (PED) of a tertiary care children’s hospital. Material and Methods: Between 7 February 2023 and 22 February 2023, the data of pediatric ‘earthquake victims’ who applied in the first 15 days after the earthquake to the PED of our hospital and were not trapped under the rubble, evaluated retrospectively. The admission times of the patients were divided into three groups as early, mid-term and late admissions. The age, gender, nationality, complaint and clinical characteristics of the patients, the province where they were exposed to the earthquake, the time from the moment of the earthquake to the application, the mode of transportation to the hospital diagnosis and treatments were recorded. Results: The study included 719 earthquake victim children. Median age of patients was 49 months (IQR 16 – 105), 387 were male (53.8%). According to age classification, infancy (n=131; 18.2%), early childhood (n=192; 26.7%) and middle childhood (n=207; 28.8%) were the most frequent admissions. The first admission to our hospital after the earthquake was 19 hours later. Thirty five (4.8%) patients were applied due to accidents during the earthquake. The leading diagnoses of the patients applied were upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) (33.9%), acute gastroenteritis (14.4%) and otitis media (11.2%). Six hundred and sixty (91.8%) patients were discharged from the emergency department, 59 (8.2%) were hospitalized. Conclusion: In the first days, while secondary accidents were at the forefront of the earthquake, in the following days, infections followed. Children are the most vulnerable group in disasters. For this reason, good planning should be done to deal with secondary accidents, infectious diseases and special medical conditions that may occur during the ‘healing’ period after disasters.