Precious Lives Research Articles

Memories of a Penitent Heart by Cecilia Aldarondo

Reviewed by: Memories of a Penitent Heart by Cecilia Aldarondo Milton R. Machuca-Gálvez Aldarondo, Cecilia, dir. Memories of a Penitent Heart. Good Docs. 2016. Film. Memories of a Penitent Heart is a personal documentary produced, directed, and written by Puerto Rican-born filmmaker Cecilia Aldarondo. This is her first feature-length film: 72 minutes long, in English and Spanish with English subtitles. It is about her quest to find out who really was Miguel Dieppa, her gay uncle, who died when she was only 6 years old. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2016. Miguel Dieppa left the island for New York City at some point in the 1970s, lived there, and died in 1987. His relocation was not conflict-free; saved family letters reveal a man haunted by religious beliefs from his upbringing, who was at times alienated from his own relatives—especially his fanatical Catholic mother, Carmen (Aldarondo's grandmother)—and, to a lesser degree, his sister Nilda, Aldarondo's own mother. In the end, the documentary becomes the symbolic exhumation and complication of Aldarondo's uncle. "[M]ás nunca yo hubiera pensado en sacar … un … un … Una cosita que pudiera mancillar la familia. Yo no lo haría …," are the very first lines heard in this film, a stern warning uttered by Titi, a family's female friend, commanding Aldarondo to stay away from digging up family secrets. Aldarondo ignores Titi's admonition and actively takes the audience on her quest for the real Miguel Dieppa, rhetorically asking, "If we only remember the good things about people we love, what do we lose?" If Aldarondo were to rely on the official version of family history her grandparents wanted to remember—Carmen's embellished scrapbooks and grainy images from 8-millimeter home movies, the Dieppa's past would be a rosy, perfect one: family gatherings, happy outings, angelical smiling children, gorgeously dressed women, well-behaved people. Examining other [End Page 480] material—old family photos and slides, and letters—and asking her mother and family friends makes Aldarondo aware that there was more to her uncle's story. Did he really die of cancer or of AIDS? Did he really repent for his homosexuality on his deathbed, or did Carmen push him and/or fantasize it? Who was and what happened to his partner, who disappeared after Miguel died? Miguel is gone, and so are his parents. There are a few friends of Carmen, who characterize her as a santa, and wholeheartedly stick to the Dieppa official narrative; Nilda only remembers Miguel's lover's first name. Aldarondo faces a dead end. If it were not for Aldarondo's efforts to get to the bottom of the story, Miguel's death would be remembered through the sanitized version. Nonetheless, in her detective-like approach, she eventually finds Robert, who was Miguel's lover, who is now a Franciscan priest, whose name is now Aquín; he still cherishes Miguel's memory, and has saved every Miguel-related document he could; he remains pained by Miguel's family rejection and the marginalization he endured during his illness and death, welcoming the opportunity to give Aldarondo his side of the story. She also meets a group of Miguel's friends from when he lived in New York City whose interviews speak of a very different person from the family portrait, and for whom he was Michael, not Miguel. Aldarondo does her own voice-over narration—blending in the voices of family members and other informants—making the documentary a distinctly personal and compelling story. The viewer never gets to see her face, however, and, although Aldarondo claims ownership of her voice through the use of personal pronouns, she remains a disembodied narrator. She does include her own complicated feelings and thought process in her narration. Why is it important to tell the story of a young Puerto Rican gay man, a casualty of the AIDS epidemic, almost thirty years after his death? The film effectively evokes the 1980s, when so many precious lives—many of them people of color—were lost, the grief exacerbated by moralistic religious discourse, the stigmatization of the sick, and homophobic...

Knowledge and Attitude regarding organ Donation among Health Professionals of Selected Colleges of Anand District

The current study aims “A study to assess knowledge and attitude regarding organ donation among health professionals of selected colleges of Anand District” Life is too precious to be lost to an organ failure. But millions have lost their lives when a vital organ failed to function in their body. Health professionals who are more concerned related to educate students in health sectors so every health rofessionalsneed to know all aspect of organ donation process including legal aspects of organ donation to save precious lives from being lost before their time.

Tracking and Accident Detection in Automobiles Using GPS and GSM Technology

This paper describes the design and development of an automatic tracking and accident detection (ATAD) system in automobiles. Oman rated as the highest causality in road accidents among GCC, according to figures released by the World Health Organization (WHO). Lack of proper reporting about the exact location add delay in paramedic unit to reach, results the loss of precious human life. The proposed single-board in-vehicle embedded system equipped with the SIM28M GPS to get geographic coordinates, SIM800 GSM modem to send the Google map link as text message, SW-420 vibration sensor to sense the collision, and the ATmega328P microcontroller as core processing unit. The vibration beyond the threshold level, say during collision is detected by the vibration sensor and this information is transferred to the microcontroller. The microcontroller gets the latitude and longitude from the GPS receiver. This coordinates send as Google map link through the GSM modem to the concern persons whose mobile numbers are stored in the memory. This text message directly loads the exact location in Google map instead of searching the location using the coordinates. This saves a precious time and victim may receive the immediate medical attention. This ATAD system serves as a complete portal to exchange information such as, real-time navigation of vehicle location, monitoring of collision, update of geographic coordinates on-demand or at regular interval and fuel shutdown using servomotor on command in case of theft.

Socio–cultural Factors Influencing Women to be more vulnerable in Natural Disasters: A Qualitative Review on Tamil Nadu state

South Asia is one of the most vulnerable areas of an increasingly disaster-impacted world, with floods, droughts cyclones and earthquakes causing several casualties and disrupting lives and livelihoods every year. India is one of the most vulnerable countries to natural disasters (Gokhale, 2008). The country has faced a number of natural disasters in the last decade which have claimed hundreds thousands of precious lives and heavy economic losses. It has been observed that more than half of the victims in the past disasters were women. Yet the impacts of disasters are not equally distributed across the peoples of the region. Women and men experience disaster differently, and their needs in the aftermath of disaster are often differ. Women are especially hard-hit by the social impacts of environmental disasters. Existing inequalities are the root cause for women’s disaster vulnerability. Global forces and social changes placing more people at greater risk of disaster also disproportionately impact women specially in Indian context. Highly vulnerable women have specific needs and interests before, during, and after disasters. Women’s socialposition in the society makes them more vulnerable to natural hazards, they are not helpless victims. Women are particularly vulnerable because they have fewer resources in their own right. They have no place in decision - making systems and they suffer traditional, routine and gratuitous gender-biased oppression. By virtue of their lower economic and social status, women tend to be more vulnerable to disasters.

Study of Fatal Burn Cases in Relation to Epidemiological and Socio- Economic Factors

Burns are amongst the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the under-developed and developing nations. This study was undertaken to understand the Epidemiological and Socio-economic factors of the fatal burn cases coming for Autopsy. The cases were found to be more prevalent in the young age group, females, Hindu religion and lower income groups. Majority of the cases were accidental occurring from cooking apparatus at the household. The findings were compared with the other studies and results were found to be similar in most over a signification period of time, which are not only disturbing facts but needs serious social deliberation and measures so as to save precious human lives. Recommendations have been given so as to minimize such incidents at least at the household level.

Abstract IA1: Progress in scaling up cervical cancer prevention in health services of developing countries

Abstract Cervical cancer is a major threat to women's health accounting for 528,000 new cases and 266,000 deaths annually around 2012, of which 85% occurred in low- and middle-income (LMICs). Substantial declines in cervical cancer incidence and mortality rates can be achieved by integrating HPV vaccination and cervical screening in public health services in LMICs. Since 2007, HPV vaccination has been introduced in national immunization programs in 73 countries, of which 33 are LMICs; in addition it has been introduced in pilot programs in another 17 countries, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. It is particularly impressive that 7 out of 8 girls have access to HPV vaccination in Latin Region. So far, more than 270 million doses have been administered globally with excellent safety profile and high acceptance, despite the negative publicity surrounding HPV vaccination. The falling vaccine prices, possibility of new vaccines from China and India and the currently recommended two-dose schedule will make HPV vaccination more feasible. Screening is yet to be widely implemented in many LMICs and many of these countries lack the health care infrastructure and resources to introduce efficient screening programs. Screening has been sub-optimally performing in some LMICs for lack of adequate coverage, follow-up and quality assurance. A number of countries have introduced visual inspection (VIA) screening in their health services as opportunistic or pilot programs. HPV testing is the most effective cervical screening tool and HPV negative women are at very low risk for cervical cancer. Currently Mexico and Argentina have introduced HPV screening. The eventual availability of a simple, affordable, faster and accurate HPV tests will facilitate wider HPV screening in LMICs. Planned investments to implement HPV vaccination of single year cohorts of 9-13 year old girls and at least a single HPV screening of women between 30-59 will save many precious lives in developing countries. Citation Format: Rengaswamy Sankaranarayanan. Progress in scaling up cervical cancer prevention in health services of developing countries [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR International Conference: New Frontiers in Cancer Research; 2017 Jan 18-22; Cape Town, South Africa. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(22 Suppl):Abstract nr IA1.

ANN based Joint Time and frequency analysis of EEG for detection of driver drowsiness

<p>Drowsiness detection plays a vital role in accidents avoidance systems, thereby saving many precious lives. According to the World Health Organization, Drowsiness has been the radical contributor of road fatalities. Electroencephalogram (EEG) is a physiological signal which relays the functioning of Brain and widely used in the diagnosis of Neurological Disorders. This study extrapolates the EEG signal analysis to examine several cognitive tasks. In this report, the EEG signal is processed to detect the behavioural patterns of the brain and drowsiness state of the drivers while performing monotonous driving for long distances. An eight-channel EEG data acquisition system is used to acquire the EEG data from 20 male volunteers. The EEG signal is pre-processed and decomposed into various rhythms by applying Digital filter in MATLAB 2007b (Mathworks, Inc., USA). Time-Frequency Domain analysis has been done to extract certain features PSG and PRMSD which are statistically significant (ρ < 0.05) in the detection of drowsiness. The driving profile is classified into Active and Drowsy by a threshold, and linear regression analysis has been performed on the features extracted. A Drowsiness index is proposed stating a positive correlation (0.8-0.9) between the Total mean and the drowsy mean of the subject.</p>

THE PLIGHT OF COMMON PEOPLE IN THE PARTITION LITERATURE OF INDIAN SUBCONTINENT

The sources of history and literature witnessed that few people on the name of religion divided the subcontinent and created severe problems in all regions of the subcontinent that people still are facing even after seventy years of partition. If we go through the pages of Indian History and Partition Literature many admirable characters will come alive in front of us. About numerous events and disasters we can learn from the books of historians and literary giants who portrayed all the situations, disasters and predicaments faced by the people before, during and after partition. Partition of India is still a darkest period in the history of subcontinent and it has left indelible marks on the pages of Indian history. Many writers have attempted to represent the trauma of partition skilfully through their writings. Britishers before leaving the subcontinent tried to break the unity of religions on the name of partition, many people were shocked as they were aware about the consequences of this division. After partition, the people who earlier were friends, neighbours, colleagues were labelled as Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians and became thirsty of each others’ blood. They acted as savages; they forgot the respect for elders and women, love towards children. To represent the people who on the name of religion killed millions of precious lives, many writers of the Indian subcontinent produced a literature called Partition Literature. The partition led to huge movements and disastrous conflicts across Indo-Pak border. About ten million Hindus and Sikhs were expelled from Pakistan and nearly seven million Muslims from India to Pakistan and thousands of people were killed in this conflict. Though, independence for Indian subcontinent was an event of celebration, but it was celebrated in the shape of mourning, tears, separation, exile, crying, bloodshed, abduction, rape, murder etc. India was the one of the largest colonies of Great Britain and was granted freedom after a long period of subjugation, however resulted into the partition of country which caused a big destruction to the subcontinent in the form of ethnic and religious riots. This paper aims to explore the voice of people and their plight, who badly suffered during the cataclysmic event of partition.

Best Practices of Heritage and Gastronomic Tourism in a Kampong

Kampong as a center of local culture keeps endless-life values that can be explored as a learning resource. In kampong there are genuine values of life which is full of local wisdom that has already existed since the ancient time. People in a kampong in Malang, think simply and use symbols in foods and life values which have been conducted by their ancestors. Culinary and heritage in the form of precious life values are two practices among many which have existed for years until the present time. However, the young generation who inherits the practices from their parents mostly do not know the philosophy or the lesson learned why they are doing these things. This paper aims at analyzing culinary and heritage values in a kampong by arranging in a calendar of events, exploring the philosophy and creatively packing the practices in a kampong for the culinary tourism purposes.

The Phenomenological Study on the Health and Life of Low-income Seniors who live in Poverty Area in Metropolitan City

Objectives : The elderly in South Korea are the poorest among OECD countries in 2015. The aim of this study was to explore the health and life of the low-income elderly living in vulnerable areas in a metropolitancity. Methods : Data were collected through in-depth individual interviews with 7 participants from October to November 2015 and analyzed through Colaizzi’s phenomenological methodology. The participants were interviewed for over 60 minutes in each person. Results : 7 categories were identified from 17 subcategories: “My life history: sick body,” “Living with a sick body,” “My poor but precious life,” “A sense of distance from the hospital,” “Narrowed area of my life,” “Thankful for help,” and “The village where I have lived my destiny.” There is a lack of medical accessibility, mobility, and economic independence for low-income seniors. In addition, full-fledged redevelopment comes to them as violence. Conclusions : The health and life of the low-income elderly in vulnerable areas are products of many social factors, reaffirming the importance of social health.

Importance of Avasthiki Chikitsa in Pakshaghata and its complications: A Clinical Case Report

Purpose: Life style disorders demand a strict regimen throughout one’s life among which Hypertension and Diabetes Mellitus are common. Hence the treatment aims an effective control along with Life style modification. The negligence towards the prescribed life style regimen would lead to many complications among which stroke are most prominent and the prevalence in India is 29%. Though the patient is under strict Anti hypertensive medications still one day he/she will land up in stroke hampering his rest of precious life. Aim: With this understanding a successful case report is presented to highlight the importance of Avasthiki Chikitsa with life style modification in controlling Hypertension and treating Pakshaghata from the root level. Materials and Methods: A 74 years old female patient, known case of HTN and DM was brought on a stretcher to the Panchakarma OPD of KLEU Ayurveda Hospital and Research Centre with the complain of loss of strength in left upper and lower limb associated with inability to speak since 9 days. Her MRI suggested Left Hemiplegia with B/L cerebellar hemorrhagic infract in occipital lobe. Initially treatment commenced with Shiromarmaghata Chikitsa with Shamanoushadhi along with modern medication which the patient had been advised. Later on when the patient started to improve in her blood parameters allied science medications were tapered and gradually stopped excluding her routine medication. After the clearance of Avarana, Panchakarma therapies were administered sequentially at various stage with a meticulous diet and exercise. Results: After 22 days of treatment Diabetes and Hypertension were under control, patient was able to walk with minimal support and speech also improved. Conclusion: A well planned diet along with Ayurvedic therapies based on the Awastha provides encouraging results in treating HTN, DM and Pakshaghata.

Unusual near- miss case of atonic postpartum haemorrhage in GMC Chandrapur (Dawn from death to life)

A maternal near- miss is an event in which a pregnant woman comes close to maternal death, but does not die. A 8 months gestation third gravida patient was admitted in GMC Chandrapur in preterm labor with intrauterine death. It was an uneventful delivery and as she was a high risk patient for postpartum hemorrhage, all preventive measures were taken. Unfortunately she landed up in atonic PPH for which her subtotal obstetric hysterectomy was done but within one hour she landed up in cardiac arrest, was revived with CPR and her internal iliac artery ligation was done. Postoperative course was uneventful and she was discharged on 10th postoperative day. The aim of this report is to stress the need for strict vigilance of PPH and cardiac arrest and prompt intervention involving multidisciplinary team which led to salvaging the precious life of a mother.

Experimental UWB based Efficient Breast Cancer Early Detection

Objectives: The effective detection system can help to detect breast cancer in the early stage. Focus of this paper is to improve Ultra Wideband (UWB) based early breast cancer detection efficiency. Methods/Statistical Analysis: Hence, a set of 125 data samples was created through forward scattering by placing two home-made UWB antennas between breast phantoms with and without tumor. Samples were divided into 5 groups with 25 samples each. K-fold cross validation method was used to train, test and validate the data set based on Feed Forward Back Propagation Neural Network (FFBPNN). Findings: The developed system detect breast tumor with average accuracy of (1) 100%, 78.17%, 70.66%, 92.46% and 86.86% and (2) 100%, 85.17%, 87.89%, 94.11% and 83,86 for existence, x, y, z and size respectively for (1) FFBPNN and (2) k-fold cross validation based FFBPNN. K-fold cross validation based FFBPNN showed in average 90.23% detection efficiency in terms of tumor existence, location (x, y and z) and size) which is nearly 5% improved compared to conventional FFBPNN (85.43%). The detected tumor is visualized in 2D and 3D environment. Application/Improvements: Hence, K-fold cross validation FFBPNN can be a future candidate as better and faster breast cancer detection system and saves precious lives.

Are Humans Special?

Are Humans Special?

Joint time-frequency analysis of EEG for the drowsiness detection: a study of cognitive behavioural patterns of the brain

Drowsiness detection plays a vital role in accidents avoidance systems, thereby saving many precious lives. According to the World Health Organization, drowsiness has been the radical contributor of road fatalities. Electroencephalogram (EEG) is a physiological signal which relays the functioning of brain and is widely used in the diagnosis of neurological disorders. This study extrapolates the EEG signal analysis to examine several cognitive tasks. In this report, the EEG signal is processed to detect the behavioural patterns of the brain and drowsiness state of the drivers while performing monotonous driving for long distances. An eight-channel EEG data acquisition system is used to acquire the EEG data from 13 male volunteers. The EEG signal is pre-processed and decomposed into various rhythms by applying digital filter in MATLAB 2007b (Mathworks, Inc., USA). Time-frequency domain analysis has been done to extract certain features, PSG and PRMSD, which are statistically significant (ρ < 0.05) in the detection of drowsiness. The driving profile is classified into active and drowsy by a threshold, and linear regression analysis has been performed on the features extracted. A drowsiness index is proposed stating a positive correlation (0.8-0.9) between the total mean and the drowsy mean of the subject.

“Your One Wild and Precious Life”: A Tale of Divergent Patterns in Narrative and Musical Development

Abstract During a lifelong journey of studying stories, I have increasingly moved toward a focus on the intersection of personal and public narrative, “the inside and outside of knowledge” (Hearne, 2015). Here I use stories to explore three questions: What happened to make a musician into a nonmusician, what happened next, and why might that matter? I’ve processed those questions through mixed genres: auto-ethnography, family history, retrospective, narrative research, and commentary by poets and memoirists. What evolved is a personalized case study of the life, death, and reincarnation of a musical sensibility.

Methanol Poisoning with Fatality- Case Series in Dhaka Medical College Hospital in Bangladesh

Background: Adulterated methanol is highly toxic and leads to severe metabolic acidosis and blindness and mortality is very high if not treated with specific antidote. The time of ingestion and severity of illness is very short and comprehensive quick assessment and care is crucial for survival of patient. The selective antidote Fomepizole is not available in Bangladesh and pure intravenous ethanol is also out of reach in health care facility. The oral ethanol has its legislative regulation. Occasional clusters of severe methanol poisoning leading to fatality has been observed in recent years in Bangladesh. Here is a case series of 8 cases of adulterated methanol poisoning in a tertiary care hospital with lethality. Results and discussion: From November 2012 to January, 2013, in sphere of 3 months medicine units of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) experienced 8 cases of methanol poisoning with fatality. Six patient presented in unconscious states within 3 to 7 h of consuming methanol while two patient presented within 48 h. All of them had gastrointestinal toxicity with variable episodes of vomiting. Three patients presented with visual impairment while only two out of eight had normal ophthalmoscopy. Respiratory distress was uniformly found in all patients before unstable profound shock. Blood ethanol level was not performed in any patient due to lack of available facility. Seven patients received only supportive measures ranging from steroids to sodium bi carbonate while one patient presented in severe toxicity and died quickly before any supportive measures. Antidote was not prescribed in any patient in the form of fomepizole or intravenous or oral ethanol. Conclusion: The judicious use of antidote even in the form of oral ethanol and folinic acid can save the precious life. A national guideline should be uniformly practiced by the physicians to combat the catastrophic methanol poisoning in Bangladesh.

Doubled Visions of Desire: Fujimura Misao, Kusamakura, and Homosocial Nostalgia

Doubled Visions of Desire:Fujimura Misao, Kusamakura, and Homosocial Nostalgia Robert Tuck (bio) Fujimura Misao's (1886-1903) suicide was unquestionably one of Japan's biggest news stories of 1903. A student at the elite First Higher School (Daiichi kōtō gakkō, founded 1886) in Tokyo, on May 22 of that year Fujimura had thrown himself into the Kegon Falls near the town of Nikkō in Tochigi Prefecture. The prevailing interpretation in the weeks that followed was that the suicide was a result of philosophical despair, a view given weight by a short passage titled "Thoughts at the Precipice" (Gantō no kan), which Fujimura carved on a tree near the falls before his death: Boundless are the expanses of space, endless the expanses of time; with my own meagre five-foot body, I attempt to fathom this vastness. But ultimately, what authority does Horatio's philosophy merit? The true nature of all that is I sum up in but a single word, and that is "unfathomable" (fukakai). Tormented by this realization, my agony has at last brought me to the decision to die. Now that I stand at the precipice, there is no anxiety of any kind in my breast. Only now do I come to understand that great tragedy and great joy are one and the same.1 Short enough to be excerpted in full in Japan's print media, "Thoughts at the Precipice" was widely discussed and analyzed therein; the reference to Horatio prompted some to hail Fujimura as "Japan's Hamlet," while prominent journalist Kuroiwa Ruikō called Fujimura the first Japanese man "to die for philosophy's sake."2 Others, by contrast, understood Fujimura as symbolic of an unhealthy degree of introspection among Japan's youth, as in the case of the president of Tokyo Imperial University Katō Hiroyuki, who penned a piece titled "Young Men Should Not Study Philosophy" (1903).3 Sōseki himself had a personal connection to the Fujimura affair, since he had actually taught the young student for a time, and Fujimura appears in three subsequent [End Page 79] Sōseki works written between 1904 and 1906: one 1904 shintaishi (new-style poem) poem and the two novels I Am a Cat (Wagahai wa neko de aru, 1905-6) and Kusamakura (1906). Kusamakura serves as an extended meditation on the power of art and poetry to transcend the anxieties of modern existence, narrated through the persona of a nameless painter (hereafter, "the painter") travelling in a rural hot-spring resort. At one point in Kusamakura, the painter specifically refers to Fujimura, for whom he expresses admiration as "a youth who threw away his precious life for the sake of the word 'beauty.'" (Those who found Fujimura's suicide less impressive, the painter suggests, are little but "louts and riff-raff" [gesu gerō]).4 In this essay, I consider Fujimura's suicide and the reaction to it as a point of departure for fashioning a new reading of Kusamakura. In particular, I explore the reaction to Fujimura's death as one of a number of examples of writing by the elite men who made up the First Higher School community. In these writings, which span a number of different literary genres, we find a consistent pattern of literary writing being used to articulate admiration and love for fellow members of this male community. The discursive thread connecting the examples I discuss is the articulation of emotion directed toward other men – be it friendship, love, admiration, or grief – by means of cross-gender identification. Writers could cross-identify in a number of different ways, but, most frequently, we see the writer of a given text employ language and tropes that suggest he himself is adopting a female identity to write to a male addressee; or, conversely, a male writer might use imagery and language that projected conventionally feminine characteristics or a female identity on to a male recipient. In both cases, language and imagery more conventionally found in descriptions of male-female heterosexual love highlight personal and social bonds between men. Not only were practices of literary cross-identification extremely widespread, but understanding their significance opens up new readings of, and insights into, several of...

Performance Verification on UWB Antennas for Breast Cancer Detection

Breast cancer is a common disease among women and death figure is continuing to increase. Early breast cancer detection is very important. Ultra wide-band (UWB) is the promising candidate for short communication applications. This paper presents the performance of different types of UWB antennas for breast cancer detection. Two types of antennas are used i.e: UWB pyramidal antenna and UWB horn antenna. These antennas are used to transmit and receive the UWB signal. The collected signals are fed into developed neural network module to measure the performance efficiency of each antenna. The average detection efficiency is 88.46% and 87.55% for UWB pyramidal antenna and UWB horn antenna respectively. These antennas can be used to detect breast cancer in the early stage and save precious lives.

Implementation of a triage system in Pakistan: the need of the hour.

In today's world, an effective emergency department (ED) cannot function properly without having a triage system. Though available in various forms, this essentially categorises patients according to the seriousness of their condition and the priority of their need.Pakistan is yet to introduce this system and where it exists, it is in its infancy. A disaster-prone country such as ours, which is frequently faced with both man-made and natural calamities, could benefit tremendously from its introduction. The activity of EDs would be streamlined and precious lives would be saved.