Citation

Johnson LJ, Travis AR. ANZ J. Surg. 2006; 76(5): 288-289.

Affiliation

Department of Surgery, Flinders Medical Centre, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. lljohnson@ausdoctors.net

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1445-2197.2006.03710.x

PMID

16768682

Abstract

26 December 2004 is a date that changed the lives of incalculable numbers of persons the world over as a result of the Asian tsunami. Krabi Province was one of the more severely affected areas of Thailand, with many of the dead and injured being non-Thai, persons who were holidaying during the peak tourist season. Some injury types were comparatively underrepresented, such as head, thoracic and abdominal trauma. Does the classic trimodal distribution of death following injury help explain the types of injuries seen in the survivors of the disaster? Data are incomplete at this point in time, but with time it may be found that the trimodal model displays the pattern of death in mass casualty disaster situations. This may aid in the development of specific strategies to deal with similar events in the future.

Language: en