BY PATRICIA ALEX
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
The scene is hypothetical, but it has to be taken seriously: A water fountain at busy Newark Liberty International Airport has been spiked with the nerve agent Sarin. Doctors at University Hospital try to puzzle what is happening as victims arrive, some dizzy, others vomiting.
Could it be food poisoning? Now one is dead and more people have become exposed before it becomes apparent that some sort of biological attack has taken place.
With terrorism an increasingly possible occurrence on U.S. soil, doctors and first responders need to be prepared, says the creator of a class now offered at Rutgers’ New Jersey Medical School. While there are courses in disaster medicine around the country, Rutgers claims its two-week elective is unique in the breadth and depth of its exploration of the topic.
“This type of training is standard fare in emergency medicine residency programs, but I’m not sure that it’s too common at the medical student level,” said Mike Baldyga, public relations manager for the American College of Emergency Physicians.
“New Jersey has good reason to be concerned about terrorism,” said the developer of the course, Dr. Leonard Cole, noting that the FBI has deemed the area around Newark — with its ports, chemical plants and population density — as one of the prime terror targets in the nation. “Part of what this course does is to alert these physicians that you’ve got to pay attention to this kind of threat.”
The fourth-year medical students taking the Terror Medicine elective this week participated in the mock exercise involving airport contamination and were asked to make decisions — through the whirring of air-filters attached to the masks they donned — in responding to the emergency
Dr. Miriam Kilkarni, an assistant professor of Emergency Medicine, asked the students where in the hospital they would find the antidote for Sarin. “The time to worry about the availability of Atropine is when you start dosing the first patient!”
Protective gear was needed, as were quarantines and communication with emergency personnel on the scene — all while triage and treatment of the victims proceeded in a chaotic environment.
https://www.northjersey.com/community-news/2.4225/schooling-first-responders-on-terror-rutgers-offers-course-for-med-students-1.1519632
