Citation

Teksam, Güleryüz OD, Dursun O, Çağlar A, Anil AB, Kendirli T, Yildizdas RD. Lancet Child Adolesc. Health 2024; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2024, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/S2352-4642(24)00198-6

PMID

39089295

Abstract

In the early morning on Feb 6, 2023, we woke up with the news that shook us deeply. An earthquake measuring 7·7 on the Richter scale had hit southeast Türkiye and Syria at 0417 h. A second earthquake with a magnitude of 7·6 hit 9 h after the first one. As paediatric emergency medicine and intensive care physicians, we wanted to help in the most impactful way possible but were not sure how to do so and which places needed the most help. Although most of us had never worked outside hospital settings or intervened in such a crisis before, we were used to working in constantly chaotic environments in the emergency department and paediatric intensive care unit (PICU), notably during the COVID-19 pandemic. This was an important time to use our knowledge and experience to stabilise critically ill children during disaster responses, and we would like to share the lessons learned.

Language: en