Survivors of a chemical incident often need immediate treatment to save lives and address injuries. However, by their nature, chemical incidents, even non-“catastrophic” incidents, make timely provision of treatment difficult. The provision of health and medical services to the affected population following a chemical incident faces several hurdles, including, but not limited to:
- The speed with which most chemical exposures produce illness and injury. To save lives, first responders and healthcare personnel may be forced to work with limited knowledge and provide medical care without knowing the identity of the released chemical.
- The lack of a specific antidote or treatment for most chemical exposures. Although appropriate non-specific care can effectively support the recovery of patients suffering an injury due to chemical exposure or contamination in many cases, the absence of a specific antidote or treatment for a chemical’s effects can limit the lifesaving capabilities of healthcare providers.
- A medical infrastructure that is ill-equipped to handle mass casualty events. Local medical infrastructure can be overwhelmed by the sheer number of individuals seeking care in a short period of time; a large proportion of these may be minimally exposed.
- A medical infrastructure that is ill-equipped to handle contaminated patients who pose hazards to pre-hospital emergency medical services personnel, healthcare providers, and other patients in a hospital emergency department setting.
Survivors may require treatment rapidly, but chemical incidents make timely provision of care difficult.