Military Medical Ethics – Scenario Collection

Unexploded Ordnance in an Expectant Patient

Page ID: 111
Last updated: 22 Nov, 2019
Page ID: 111
Last updated: 22 Nov, 2019
Revision: 1
Comments: 0
  • During a mass casualty response, after a rocket attack, patients come in.
  • On of the casualties is a 30-year-old male sustaining fatal injuries from the aforementioned rocket attack. At triage, he was triaged to the “expectant” category to facilitate final mortality identification and postmortem care.
  • During post-mortem care, the decedent was noted to have a deformity of the anterior chest wall just inferior to the xiphoid process, and an 8 × 8 cm wound in the right posterior wall of the torso. Given the known scenario of injuries suffered in a rocket attack, the possibility of an unexploded ordnance (UXO) was raised.

Source: Adapted from: Howell, Christopher M., Joseph S. Sontgerath, und Luke B. Simonet. 2016. «Unexploded Ordnance in an Expectant Patient: A Case Report». Military Medicine 181 (3): e302–5. https://doi.org/10.7205/MILMED-D-15-00213.

Questions for the discussion of this scenario

How do you react to the possible danger from the UXO?
Can the possibility of UXO influence the ordinary triage process? If so, in what ways?

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Page ID: 111
Last updated: 22 Nov, 2019
Revision: 1
Comments: 0
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