COLECTIV - THE MEDICAL BATTLE BEHIND THE TRAGEDY

Introduction In the evening of 30th October 2015 a night club was subject to a mass casualty. There was a fire involving the whole club at the gala of a rock concert. A number of over 100 burned people were transported to 11 Bucharest hospitals. In our hospital, the on call doctors mobilized all their colleagues and proceeded in immediate urgency to wound and intensive care of all patients. Material and methodsIn our hospital there were admitted 23 patients.  All the burns were severe due to the involvement of the face and hands. The surfaces varied between 5 and 90%. The vast majority of them presented also airway burns. The burns were surgically approached by early excision and grafting, conservative methods, enzymatic debridement and grafting. The surgery procedures  intermingled with the intensive care of these patients.ResultsA number of 15 patients were admitted in the intensive care unit and the rest of them in the clinic of plastic surgery. Two of them, with large burned surfaces and airway burns died in the first 48 hours, and another 3 in the first 2 weeks.  A number of 5 patients were transferred abroad; one of them died from respiratory failure. The rest of them remained in our hospital. After a long journey of medical and surgical surveillance they succeeded. Rehabilitation interventions began immediately after injury to prevent long term complications.  ConclusionsThe involvement of all the members of our clinic, anesthesiologists, psychologists, rehabilitation doctors, doubled by the help of other European burn centers allowed the survival and satisfactory results of the majority of our patients. Burn care continued after surgery addressing complex issues such as contractures, keloid and hypertrophic scarring, pain, neuropathy and psychosocial problems