11.28.2008

Another pursuit

I finally completed my application for DMAT/NMRT.

Should be good stuff. I'm extremely interested in disaster medicine. I like how in the wake of a disaster, you have some trauma patients but a ton of public health issues. It's really fascinating how the medical conditions resulting from a disaster evolve and change over time. You've got everything from the blast injuries of the first few seconds to the PTSD that may begin to rear its ugly head a couple of months down the line.

Oh, and to give you an idea of how awesome this team is:

"The NMRT-Central is now the only “all hazard” team within NDMS and deploys with 60 medical and non-medical specialists capable of decontaminating up to 1000 patients an hour or treating up to 200 patients a day in a medical setting."

"Currently a DMAT can provide care including cardiac resuscitation, basic to mid level trauma care, basic clinic operations, and now providing radiological services with portable x-rays. "

Good stuff. You know, people freak out and think that the government is incompetent and unprepared for disaster, but when you look at the whole picture they do a pretty damn good job. Admittedly there's weak spots in the system, but what the heck do you expect? They're trying to prepare for and manage catastrophic, unpredictable events at the national level.

1 comment:

JS said...

When i was in camp allen in baton rouge I was housed with DMAT and USAR teams. We have DMAT team here based out of the detroit area. They worked at ground zero after 9/11. I wish I had the time to hook up with a DMAT team. You should do it! JS