People have been trapped under the ruble for days and are being pulled out. WOW. This is called in Darwinian terms “survival of the fittest”. The healthy and strong can take a hit. And, as is always the case, the frail and debilitated don’t make it. Crush injury to the limbs causes muscle breakdown. Toxins are released into the blood. Not only do potassium levels go up, but also phosphate and a muscle component called myoglobin. The kidneys get overwhelmed by myoglobin running through them. Urine turns dark brown. But the heat, and lack of water also slowly shut down the kidneys. Urine output drops until the person goes into renal failure.  A couple of days of renal failure and the toxins in the body creep up on the brain. A person can loose consciousness. Terrible. BUT… a darker problem looms upon a crushed limb. The germs, heat and a festering wound are the perfect place for gangrene. Gangrene is caused by Clostridium perfringens, a bacteria. It’s hard to treat and the quickest most cost effective treatment at that point is amputation, unfortunately. Sad. I suspect gangrene is a major problem at this point in the population.

And what about pain control for these people? What is the cheapest and strongest drug? If you are thinking morphine, you are right. People must be screaming in the background. But the news stories are not full of screams. I wonder why the post amputation screams are not on TV.

Tags: injuries/trauma

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 24th, 2010 at 6:26 pm and is filed under In the News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.