The testimonies of doctors who intervened in Paris and Nice have helped to put in place measures to better take care of the victims of attacks.
More than a year after the attacks in Paris and Nice, doctors, hospitals and firefighters remain horrified. In The Lancet, they come back to what they experienced and had to put in place as a matter of urgency. Feedback which also makes it possible to present measures to be implemented in the coming months or years to be better prepared for the terrorist threat.
“The adaptability of plans, the transposition of military treatment techniques into the civilian context, simulation exercises as well as close cooperation with the security forces are the basis of the system which must cover the whole of French territory” , explains a press release from the AP-HP.
In this context, the training of doctors and students in techniques for treating victims of attacks will be reinforced. From the start of the next school year, medical students will be trained in such special treatments such as the fitting of a tourniquet or compression bandage.
These courses will also be extended to general practitioners. “The medical response to terrorist acts must be integrated into the initial training of all doctors”, add the authors of this article. Thus all caregivers – from dentist to pharmacists – will have to obtain a “certificate of training in emergency procedures and care”, specifies The Generalist.
Limit the damage
“It is also necessary to complete the training of hospital teams on certain points such as the care of a large number of pediatric victims, or the response to the use of chemical weapons which can produce very many victims” , add the authors of the article. They also believe that all operating theater teams, whether in large hospitals or not, must master the surgical principle of “damage control”. This military technique consists of performing emergency surgery to stop the bleeding and intervene again a day later.
Doctors also indicate that progress must be made on the ground, in particular in terms of identification of victims and information provided to relatives. Psychological support for victims has also been adapted to help a larger number of people as soon as possible and prevent the onset of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Watch the program L’invité Santé from January 31, 2016 with Prof. Denis Safran, chief medical officer of the BRI, the first doctor to enter the Bataclan on November 13, 2015.
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