West Valley CERT

Introduction and Unit Overview -- Disaster Medical Operations I

The need for disaster medical operations is based on two assumptions:

• The number of victims will exceed the local capacity for treatment.
• Survivors will assist others. They will do whatever they know how to do. They need to know lifesaving or post-disaster survival techniques.

There are three phases of death from trauma:

• Phase 1: Death within minutes as a result of overwhelming and irreversible damage to vital organs