Rescue Teams Research Articles

Comprehensive risk management of health, safety and environment for social emergency rescue organization

During the rescue and relief work of social emergency rescue organizations, the rescue team members face significant responsibilities and risks. Social rescue organizations need to improve funding, available equipment and other aspects compared with professional emergency rescue organizations. Moreover, the development of rescue levels among emergency rescue organizations is unbalanced, and rescue teams’' comprehensive quality and skills are uneven. To understand the safety risks of these organizations before the implementation of rescue and relief tasks, the task situation and its characteristics must be assessed timely, and safety must be ensured under the premise of efficient completion of the rescue missions. Based on the theory of safety system engineering and health, safety, and environment risk management, a risk management model is established to achieve a closed-loop risk management. The risk factors in rescue and relief tasks of social rescue organizations were identified, and a health, safety and environment risk assessment index system and grading standard were established. A gray cloud model was applied for the evaluation method, the problems of information randomness, risk-level boundary fuzziness and randomness of the evaluation index data were effectively solved. Subsequently, a risk hierarchical early warning and control strategies were proposed to allocate emergency resources rationally. The proposed method was verified and found to have universal applicability and strong practicability.

A System Based in Virtual Reality to Manage Flood Damage

Abstract: Virtual Reality is seen as the high-end of human-computer interactions and it has the potential to target a wide range of applications. During the flood, it is difficult to communicate with the people by the rescue team from the helicopter.It is not possible to interact with Everyone directly. Because there won’t be any mode of communication during the disaster.The VR system helps Communicate with the people. Redirected walking algorithms require the prediction of human motion in Order to effectively steer users away from the boundaries of the physical space. While a virtual trajectory may be represented using straight lines connecting waypoints of interest, this simple model does not accurately represent typical user behavior. We implemented the model within a framework that can be used for redirect walking within different virtual and physical environments. It Is useful For the evaluation of redirected of parameters under varying conditions. In the proposed system a projection is made from the helicopter to the ground.When a person stands on a specified location, that particular message is Gathered. This helps to communicate with the affected people

Underwater Positioning Analysis and System Establishment of the Towed Underwater Hydrophone Array System

The aim of this study is to establish an underwater towed hydrophone array detection and positioning system, which serves as a rescue device for detecting flight recorders in the event of a maritime accident. By using Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) to calculate the azimuth of the underwater locator beacon (ULB) which is located inside the black box, the position of the flight recorder can be obtained. The underwater towed hydrophone array detection and positioning system was tested for a three-day experiment in the waters off the southwest coast of Taiwan. The azimuth of the sound source was determined by using two frequencies generated by different types of underwater locator beacons (37.5 kHz and 8.8 kHz) and post-processing. The accuracy of the positioning was achieved by controlling the depth of the underwater hydrophone array. This study can deduce the location of the underwater locator beacon through subsequent positioning analysis, which can be used by search and rescue teams in the future to improve the efficiency of the rescue process.

Accidental Impact Driven Paramedic Alerting System

Abstract. Nowadays the traffic has been increased on a large scale. The number of vehicles on the road is increasing rapidly while the rate of construction of new roads is slow. Due to this, the number of road accidents has increased. Research has shown that there is a lack of proper communication with the medical authorities and delayed medical support which results in loss of life. To address this situation, we have proposed a model in which an accelerometer sensor is used to detect the occurrence of an accident. GSM module is used to send alert messages with GPS coordinates to Hospitals, Police Control Rooms, and Rescue teams. The emergency services receive these alert messages and coordinate through Emergency helpline numbers via the GSM module. Mainly, this System will be useful in isolated Areas where there is no one to report on the spot of mishap. With the inclusion of this system, there will be increase in the effectiveness of medical emergency services. Surely, the medical emergency services will get evolved and faster responses can be generated towards the injured person with the help of this System.

Arrhythmias Occurring in Children during HEMS Intervention: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

Arrhythmias in patients during medical transport remain a challenge for medical personnel. Helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) crews, as the only medical rescue teams in Poland to conduct rescue flights, keep detailed documentation of monitoring vital functions over short time intervals during the flight. The aim of this study was to determine the characteristics of cardiac arrhythmia in pediatric patients (up to 12 years of age) transported by HEMS operatives, considering life-threatening rhythms and those that occur during out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). The analysis of HEMS medical documentation covered 90345 missions carried out from 2011 to 2020. Among all activations, 820 cases of arrhythmias in pediatric patients up to 12 years of age were extracted. Missions for males accounted for 60% of all activations (n = 492), while flights for females accounted for 40% (n = 328). A statistically significant relationship between the number of HEMS flights and the season was demonstrated (p = 0.015). During the study period, pediatric patients mostly experienced cardiac arrhythmias in the form of supraventricular tachycardia (sVT) (n = 504). Asystole (n = 178) and pulseless electrical activity (PEA) (n = 52) ranked second and third in terms of occurrence, respectively. A statistically significant relationship between the type of heart rhythm disorder and age was demonstrated (p < 0.05). Heart rhythm disorders most often affected children between 0 and 3 years of age. As the patient's age increased, the incidence of arrhythmias decreased. Among pediatric patients, supraventricular tachycardia proved to be the predominant arrhythmia during the study period.

Position-dependent partial convolutions for supervised spatial interpolation

Acquiring continuous spatial data, e.g., spatial ground motion, is essential to assess the damaged area and appropriately assign rescue and medical teams. Therefore, spatial interpolation methods have been developed to estimate the value of unobserved points linearly from neighbor observed values, i.e., inverse distance weighting and Kriging. Meanwhile, realistic spatial continuous environmental data with various scenarios can be generated by 3-D finite difference methods using a high-resolution structure model. These enable to collect supervised data even for unobserved points. Therefore, this paper proposes a framework of supervised spatial interpolation and applies highly advanced deep inpainting methods, where spatially distributed observed points are treated as masked images and non-linearly expanded through convolutional encoder–decoder networks. However, the property of translation invariance would avoid locally fine-grained interpolation because the relation between the target and surrounding observation points varies among regions owing to their topography and subsurface structure. To overcome this issue, this paper proposes introducing position-dependent partial convolution, where kernel weights are adjusted depending on their position on an image based on the trainable position-feature map. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed method, called Position-dependent Deep Inpainting Method, using toy and ground-motion data.

Cross-border simulation training for German and Polish emergency medical teams is feasible: conception and evaluation of a bilingual simulation training

BackgroundCross-border cooperation of emergency medical services, institutions and hospitals helps to reduce negative impact of national borders and consecutive discrimination of persons living and working in border regions. This study aims to explore the feasibility and effectiveness of a cross-border bilingual simulation training for emergency medical services within an INTERREG-VA-funded project.MethodsFive days of simulation training for German and Polish paramedics in mixed groups were planned. Effectiveness of training and main learning objectives were evaluated as pre-post-comparisons and self-assessment by participants.ResultsDue to COVID-19 pandemic, only three of nine training modules with n = 16 participants could be realised. Cross-border-simulation training was ranked more positively and was perceived as more useful after the training compared to pretraining. Primary survey has been performed using ABCDE scheme in 18 of 21 scenarios, whereas schemes to obtain medical history have been applied incompletely. However, participants stated to be able to communicate with patients and relatives in 10 of 21 scenarios.ConclusionThis study demonstrates feasibility of a bilingual cross-border simulation training for German and Polish rescue teams. Further research is highly needed to evaluate communication processes and intra-team interaction during bilingual simulation training and in cross-border emergency medical services rescue operations.

The linkage between team communication, team motivation and search and rescue team performance

Orientation: This study examined the linkage between team communication, team motivation and search and rescue (SAR) team performance.Research purpose: The study intends to investigate the impact of selected team factors that affect team performance, while adding to the scarce studies done on SAR team performance (especially in Malaysia).Motivation for the study: Search and rescue teams are skilled elite teams that can reflect the true characteristics of a team’s performance.Research approach / design and method: The study comprised 850 individual team members who were aggregated into 209 teams. Teams were among the SAR teams of the Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department. The study used a quantitative approach, employing the purposive sampling technique. The relationships between team communication, team motivation and SAR team performance were analysed using the structural equation modelling (SEM).Main findings: The results indicate that team communication affects SAR team performance; however, the relationship is not mediated by team motivation.Practical/managerial implications: Team communication is vital to the achievement of teams’ objectives. However, in life-and-death situations, which are usual for SAR teams, team motivation does not have a role in how communication affects the teams’ performance. Team leaders and the managers of SAR teams need to focus on effective communication techniques in order to achieve excellent performance. This includes the use of appropriate verbal and non-verbal communication.Contribution/value-add: This study adds value to the current literature on team performance, specifically SAR team performance.

SOSFloodFinder: A text-based priority classification system for enhanced decision-making in optimizing emergency flood response

&lt;p&gt;Flooding is a significant concern in nations with frequent precipitation because it can instantly affect multiple regions simultaneously. Due to the unpredictability of their occurrence caused by rapid water level rise, it is challenging to predict such natural disasters accurately. During flooding, prompt rescue efforts are crucial for the affected population. Due to flooded highways and residences, rescue teams may have difficulty locating victims. This hinders the potentially perilous and time-consuming rescue operation. To address this problem, we propose a web-based system that integrates natural language processing (NLP) with global positioning system (GPS) functionality. The SOSFloodFinder system provides automatic classification priorities for text messages sent by flood victims, as well as their most recent or current locations. The classification of text based on priority enables efficient resource allocation during rescue operations. In conclusion, this system has the potential to reduce future flood-related fatalities. Additional research and development are necessary to thoroughly investigate this method’s practical capabilities and effectiveness.&lt;/p&gt;

Medical rescue team's experiences in disaster response to individuals with special needs: The case of Türkiye

Medical rescue team's experiences in disaster response to individuals with special needs: The case of Türkiye

Nursing care for children with fulminant myocarditis treated with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.

To summarize the nursing experience of treating pediatric fulminant myocarditis with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). The intensive care unit of our hospital treated 6 children with fulminant myocarditis with ECMO from 2019 to 2022. The main nursing measures included establishing an ECMO rescue team, preparing before initiation of ECMO, management of arterial and venous catheters, enteral nutrition support, reducing the risk of infection aggravation, anticoagulation management, prevention of bleeding and thrombosis, management of ECMO pump failure, and post-ECMO care. One child's family abandoned treatment and left the hospital, while the other 5 children were transferred to the cardiovascular department after stable weaning from ECMO and continued treatment, with good condition, and eventually discharged. Pediatric fulminant myocarditis has a high mortality rate, but detailed evaluation and nursing care can improve the outcome of these patients.

The Development of User Requirements as a Framework for the Design and Evaluation of a Fit-for-Purpose Missing Person Locator System for Underground Mines

Entrapments are a huge risk in underground mines. This happens when miners (or any other persons who have entered underground) survive the initial event of an accident, become trapped or lost in unknown and life-threatening locations after evacuation, and remain unaccounted for. At this point, every second counts, and emergency response is highly desired for any chances of saving survivors. The survival chances of the missing persons depend on how quickly they can be located. Rescue teams are often deployed to search for the missing persons underground. However, the rescue teams are forced to search in random and presumed areas of the mine. This is due to the unavailability of information pertaining to the whereabouts of the missing persons. Not only the provision of accurate locations, but various other types of information such as post-accident two-way communication can enhance the survival chances of the missing persons. This information can be provided by a fit-for-purpose missing person locator system. A wide variety of missing person locator systems are already commercially available, some are in testing phases and others in prototype and development phases. This includes tracking, tracing, location detectors and post-accident two-way communication systems. These systems have unique functionalities, capabilities and limitations; making it difficult for mines to select the most effective, applicable and suitable system specific to their mine. In this study, the user requirements for a fit-for-purpose missing person locator system were developed. The purpose of the user requirements was to provide a guideline to facilitate the system selection process. The user requirements can also be used as a tool to measure and evaluate the performance of the selected missing person locator system. The user requirements were also used to predict the success of the selected system under different missing person incident scenarios. The development of the user requirements showed a potential for many other benefits for missing person locator systems.

Joint disaster relief: the Chinese civilian rescue teams’ response to the 2021 Henan flood

Joint disaster relief: the Chinese civilian rescue teams’ response to the 2021 Henan flood

Comparative analysis of rescue operations to rescue a victims at a height

A quantitative comparative assessment of the influence of the size of the rescue teams, as well as the level of preparedness of the rescuers-climbers on the time of implementation of various options for rescuing the victim by evacuation in an unsupported space, was carried out, which will contribute to solving the problem of reducing the time of rescue work at height without reducing the level of safety as a personnel rescue teams, as well as victims who require evacuation in an unsupported space. A comparative assessment of various options for height rescue operations was carried out, taking into account both the level of training of rescuers and the completeness of the rescue unit. with the help of both a spinal immobilization shield and rescue stretchers by the personnel of rescuers of the basic and initial level of training in groups of full and part-time staff in accordance with the criteria of Shapiro-Wilkie, Fisher and Student. It is shown that the time distribution of height rescue operations according to the options considered with a significance level of =0,05 can be considered normal. At the same time, the mathematical expectation of the time of height rescue work at height for the specified options differs significantly not only depending on the technical capabilities of the special equipment and safety devices used, but also on the level of preparedness of the rescuer-climber and the size of the rescue team. These properties must be taken into account when drawing up methodological recommendations for performing rescue work at height, as well as professional training of a rescuer-climber. The reliability of the obtained estimates was confirmed by comparison with the results of research conducted in 2018–2019.

An efficiency-based interactive dynamic technique with interval-valued hesitant fuzzy constraint cone for rescue route planning

This paper develops an efficiency-based interactive dynamic technique to design the post-disaster rescue route by combining the data envelopment analysis (DEA), traveling salesman problem (TSP) and interval-valued hesitant fuzzy constraint cone (IVHFCC). The traditional DEA potentially presumes that the weights of the input (output) criteria are unrestricted, resulting in its inapplicability to some complex decision problems. To restrict the weights of input (output) criteria legitimately, this paper constructs an IVHFCC based on expert’s subjective preferences in the form of interval-valued hesitant fuzzy sets. This paper defines the additive consistent normal interval-valued hesitant fuzzy preference relation (NIVHFPR) and analyses its desirable properties. Based on these properties, three linear programming models are proposed to repair the incomplete NIVHFPR, judge the additive consistency of the repaired NIVHFPR and generate the additive consistent NIVHFPR. By incorporating the TSP, DEA and the constructed IVHFCC, an efficiency-based interactive dynamic model is originally proposed to generate the optimal rescue route for the rescue team. Some desirable properties of this efficiency-based interactive dynamic model are analyzed. The validity of this model is demonstrated with a real post-disaster rescue route planning problem of Wenchuan earthquake. Some comparative analyses are provided to show the superiorities of the proposed technique.

72 Sudden arrest in children in air medical rescue teams in poland

72 Sudden arrest in children in air medical rescue teams in poland

The relationship between acute pain and other types of suffering in pre-hospital trauma victims: An observational study

BackgroundAcute pain is an important complaint reported by trauma victims, however, the relationship between it and other types of discomfort, such as discomfort caused by cold, discomfort caused by immobilization, and psychological distress such as fear, anxiety, and sadness is limitedly studied and documented. AimTo assess the relationship between acute trauma pain and other types of suffering in pre-hospital trauma victims. MethodsThis is a prospective multicentre cohort study conducted in Immediate Life Support Ambulances in Portugal. All adult trauma victims with a mechanism of blunt and penetrating injuries, falls, road accidents and explosions, were included. Results605 trauma victims were included, mainly male, with a mean age of 53.4 years. Before the intervention of the rescue teams, 90.5 % of the victims reported some level of pain, 39.0 % reported discomfort caused by cold, while 15.7 % felt fear, 8.4 % sadness, 49.8 % anxiety and 4.5 % apathy. Victims with high discomfort caused by cold tend to have higher pain levels. Significantly higher pain intensity were observed in victims with fear and anxiety. Univariate and multivariate analysis indicates that immobilization is associated with increased pain levels. ConclusionsThere is a statistically significant relationship between acute trauma pain, anxiety, fear, cold and immobilization.

Greenhouse gas emission in the whole process of forest fire including rescue: a case of forest fire in Beibei District of Chongqing.

In the context of global high temperature, the harm of greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions caused by frequent forest fires to the environment cannot be ignored. Existing research only calculates the GHG generated by the burning of forest vegetation, ignoring the GHG generated by the fire-driven social rescue activities. Taking the forest fire in Beibei District, Chongqing City, China, as an example, this paper studies and establishes the GHG emission accounting method for the whole process of forest fire from ignition to fire extinguishing through three processes: vegetation burning, rescue transportation, and on-site fire extinguishing. It covers three GHG calculation types: biomass burning, traffic activity level comprehensive energy consumption, and machine energy consumption. Among them, the CO2 produced by the burning of coniferous forest, the support transportation of rescue teams in Yunnan province, and the motorcycle transportation at the fire extinguishing site accounted for a relatively high proportion in the corresponding processes, reaching 12,761.445 t, 118.750 t, and 1056.980 t, respectively. Finally, through data analysis, suggestions on GHG emission reduction related to forest tree regulation and optimization of rescue and fire extinguishing management are put forward, which provides a direction for future research on carbon reduction in the whole process of forest fire events.

A - 64 The Neuropsychology of Lost Person Behavior: Case Studies of Lost Persons with Substance Intoxication, Dementia, and Intact Cognitive Status.

The location of lost persons by Search and Rescue teams is often achieved through statistical analyses based on previous cases, however, the impact of neuropsychological functioning on the behavior of lost persons has not been explored. Information about how the neuropsychological profile of various lost persons can inform the behavior of those persons will substantially assist Search and Rescue efforts. This poster examines 3 case studies of lost persons: an individual with dementia lost in a small city, an intoxicated man in his 20s lost in the woods, and a cognitively intact middle-aged man lost at the top of a mountain. The author describes each case and how the neuropsychological profile of a person with dementia, an intoxicated individual, and a person without cognitive deficits can inform lost person behavior. The poster highlights key factors in identifying how neuropsychological functioning in various profiles will influence how the lost person behaves. The results of the lost person behavior and their executive functioning profiles are compared and contrasted. The author provides information about how neuropsychological profile of individuals with dementia, intoxication, and intact functioning influence how these persons behave when lost. This information may be used to assist Search and Rescue teams in more quickly and efficiently finding lost persons.

Evaluation of decision support system for disaster management using multi-criteria decision techniques: a case study of Alappuzha, Kerala

ABSTRACT The monsoon pattern has shifted across Kerala. This, combined with significant deforestation and hill denuding, has resulted in catastrophic floods and landslides, particularly during the Southwest monsoon. Urgent relief services were to be delivered in a timely and accurate manner in order to sustain the lives of the impacted people. Even though resources were sent to several relief camps, they were either in excess or shortage on multiple instances. The conditions that prevailed during the monsoon time, as well as concerns and challenges during disaster relief efforts, must first be investigated for the effective operation of these supply chain activities. This research aims to develop a disaster logistics hub location selection decision support system, based on the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) and Best Worst Method (BWM), to meet the needs of disaster victims and rescue teams in the event of flooding, and to implement the proposed systems in Kuttanad, Kerala. Initially, the criteria are determined and structured in the hierarchy, and the weightage for the criteria is done via a questionnaire technique. Expert opinion on nine points scale was gathered from a set of experts working under different levels of positions during disaster management. The weights obtained by the FAHP and BWM methods were statistically analysed and compared for the reliability of the two techniques. The suggested model and application results may throw light on future work, particularly in the realm of disaster logistics management.