Doctors at The University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore plan for massive disasters, but the number of patients they are about to see is unthinkable.
Starting today, they will help treat thousands of critically injured earthquake survivors at West China Hospital in Chengdu, Sichuan province.
“This is the first time we?ve done this in another country, but we are prepared to mobilize all our resources to help in China,” said Dr. Thomas M. Scalea, physician in chief at the Shock Trauma Center. “We don?t really know what we?re going to find.”
The Chinese government invited Scalea to lead a team of trauma physicians and nurses to help out at West China?s modern, 4,300-bed hospital, considered one of China?s top hospitals for trauma care. More than 2,000 critically injured survivors of the earthquake have been cared for in that facility alone, located about 50 miles from the epicenter of the May 12 quake.
“This morning they had a [magnitude] 6.0 aftershock. There still is danger,” said Dr. Geoffrey Sheinfeld, a specialist in critical care and nephrology.
There has been rising levels of acute renal failure from a lot of the crushing injuries, he said, as people?s bodies start to process a lot of damaged muscle tissue in the wake of dehydration.
The invitation came from the Chinese ambassador to the United States, Zhou Wenzhong. The Shock Trauma team expects to be in China for 10 days.
In addition to Scalea and Sheinfeld, the team includes Dr. Thomas Grissom, a specialist in critical care and anesthesiology; Karen Karash, a neurotrauma critical care nurse; and Peter Hu, chief technologist responsible for online consultations that will be conducted during the trip.
Sheinfeld also is coordinating the shipment of dialysis equipment and other supplies into the quake-ravaged West China Hospital.
Scalea and other leaders of Shock Trauma have built relationships with members of the Chinese Ministry of Health and several trauma hospitals in China since 2004.
Scalea has visitedand worked with doctors at Shanghai East Hospital, Shanghai No. 6 People?s Hospital and Peking Union Hospital. Shock Trauma co-hosted an international conference in Shanghai with the Chinese Emergency Medicine & Trauma Associations in 2007 that brought together experts to discuss advanced trauma and critical care.
