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Tornado Disaster Casualties Admitted to a County Hospital in the Jiangsu Province of China

Part of: Tornadoes collection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2020

Junqiang Dong ,
Bing Wang ,
Qiangyu Deng ,
Wenya Yu ,
Haiping Chen  and
Lulu Zhang
Junqiang Dong
Affiliation:
No. 925 Hospital in Guiyang City, Guizhou Province Institute of Military Health Management, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China
Bing Wang
Affiliation:
The People’s Hospital of Funing, Yancheng, China
Qiangyu Deng
Affiliation:
Institute of Military Health Management, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China
Wenya Yu
Affiliation:
Institute of Military Health Management, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China
Haiping Chen
Affiliation:
Institute of Military Health Management, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China
Lulu Zhang*
Affiliation:
Institute of Military Health Management, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to Lulu Zhang, Department of Military Health Service Management, College of Military Health Service Management, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China (e-mail: zllrmit@aliyun.com).
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Abstract

Objective:

We analyzed characteristics of tornado-related injuries and medical impact on a county-level hospital in China in June 23, 2016. The objective of this study was to describe and analyze local government rescue responses following the tornado.

Methods:

County hospital medical records of 288 tornado-related injury patients were collected. Descriptive analyses to study injury characteristics and associated risk factors were performed.

Results:

Of the studied population, 84% of the wounded were older than 45 years. Only 30 (10.4%) people were sent to the hospital for treatment within 3 hours following the disaster. Heavy objects or collapsing houses accounted for 191 (66.3%) of the documented injuries. The proportion of people with resulting brain injuries was 46.2% of the entire injured population, and the incidence of lower extremity injuries was 27.8%. A total of 89.6% of the wounded had skin and soft tissue injuries. Multiple injuries were found in 129 (44.8%) people and 156 had a single injury (54.2%), and 3 cases with acute stress disorder were admitted to the hospital.

Conclusions:

Preparation plans, including tornado warnings, prevention, and rescue, are a basic requirement for the mitigation of tornado-related injuries. Protection awareness of tornado disasters is also critical to ensure injury prevention.

Keywords

disaster medicinetornadoestornado-related injuriestrauma
Type
Original Research
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 14 , Issue 5 , October 2020 , pp. 585 - 589
Copyright
Copyright © 2020 Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc.

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Footnotes

JD, BW, and QD contributed equally to this paper and are co-first authors.

References

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