Disaster area triage in the first 24 h of earthquakes, evaluation of pre-hospital and hospital procedures: 6.6 Elazig earthquake

BACKGROUND: Earthquakes are natural events, but the destruction they cause is quite high. Since it is not possible to prevent an earthquake, it is necessary to raise conscious and sensitive individuals about earthquakes and to seek solutions. It was aimed to present the triage, consumables, fluids, and drugs used in the 2020 Elazig earthquake. METHODS: After the earthquake, the epicenter of which was Sivrice/Elazig on January 24, 2020, all affected victims, pre-hospital triage status, management of emergency, and other inpatient services during the hospitalization, medical interventions including surgeries, consumables, fluids, and drugs were evaluated retrospectively with the data in the first 24 h. RESULTS: The total number of injured after the earthquake in Elazig, which had a magnitude of 6.6 on the Richter scale and lasted for 22 s, was 974. While 37 (3.7%) people died, 18 (1.8%) of them were women. While 34 people died in the wreckage and 3 people in the emergency department, their mean age was 46.0±12.5 years. While 654 patients were registered in the first 24 h, 30 of them were by 112 Command and Control Center and 624 were outpatients. Temporary registration was provided to 320 people as they did not have their identity information. CONCLUSION: Being prepared and organized before an earthquake, and taking early intervention will provide significant success in the survival of the disaster victims.