International Operational Medicine

The following article included in this edition focuses on a mass-casualty, active-shooter event that occurred in 2017.  The attached link is a recent (Nov 2020) review of the terrorist bombing of a major concert (Ariana Grande) in England.  As the author indicates, there are multiple lessons to be learned, and unfortunately several key mistakes were made by security personnel that lead to a high casualty rate (over 800 people injured and 22 fatalities). Medical care was significantly delayed.  Note the time of medical response by the fire / EMS.  How long did it take for medical responders to start taking care of the bombing victims? It is important to read why the delay occurred, so that YOUR training and your education of others can take this into account. Unfortunately, some lessons were forgotten and history repeated itself, with failure of security officers to recognize pre-attack indicators and a severe delay in medical response.

• Homeland Security Today US - Infrastructure Security Lessons from the Manchester Arena Attack (author:  Bridget Johnson, November 24, 2020 - Learn More
• This is a link to a TV station news story that unfortunate evening, that summarized what happened and allows visualization of some of the chaos and details. Watch Video

Many things to learn and teach others.

Keegan Bradley, MD, EMT-T. Co-Editor