MME Scenario Collection


Keep alive despite massive wounds and unsure quality of life?

The ability to maintain the wounded alive is nothing less than astounding. Medical advances, combined with improved body armour and rapid evacuation, have resulted in lives saved that would have been unsalvageable only 20 years ago. […]

In one scenario, a member of the local Afghan security forces has suffered massive injuries from an improvised explosive device.
He has lost both his legs and both his forearms. The blast has removed his entire face.
Tourniquets are controlling the bleeding from the legs. He is still alive.

If he can be saved by use of the coalition forces’ state of the art medical services, what of his future once he is transferred to a local health centre, whose facilities pale in comparison?

Source: Sokol, D. K. 2011. The medical ethics of the battlefield. BMJ 343: d3877–d3877



Page ID: 114
Last updated: 19 Aug, 2021
Revision: 1
Military Medical Ethics Scenarios -> Limited/ scarce resources environment -> Level of care under limited resources -> Keep alive despite massive wounds and unsure quality of life?
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