Scene and Mortuary Management Following a Mass Fatality Incident

Abstract

No jurisdiction is immune to mass fatality incidents (MFIs). There are multiple stakeholders, including medico-legal practitioners involved in the response. Depending on their specialty, practitioners may be asked to manage or contribute to various parts of the operation, such as the localization, recovery, documentation, handling, examination, and/or identification of the deceased. The situation after an MFI is however inherently chaotic, especially in the initial phases of the disaster response. This may significantly complicate the examination and processing of the scene(s), as well as the planning of the transport, handling, and examination of the deceased (i.e., mortuary management). This chapter discusses general principles of disaster management and disaster victim identification (DVI), and provides an overview of the general process, major issues, and recent developments in scene examination and mortuary management after MFIs.