COUNTYWIDE : Doctors Focus on Quake Scene Care

Most people don’t see a portable cooler as a life-saving device--but a group of Orange County doctors does.

The coolers, filled with medical supplies, were on display at UCI Medical Center on Friday as about 40 Orange County physicians learned how to respond during a disaster.

The unique two-day course is designed to teach doctors--who are accustomed to working in hospitals--how to put their skills to use at the scene of an emergency, far away from an emergency room.

“It’s the very first program like this in the world,” said Dr. Robert Bade, co-creator of Medical Disaster Response, the organization that developed the training program.

The doctors were taught how to make the best use of the supplies in the coolers, which will be placed at schools and businesses throughout the county, ready for the next earthquake or other disaster.

“Most doctors are used to working in a hospital with a tremendous number of supplies and equipment,” said Dr. Michael Trainor, president-elect of the American College of Emergency Physicians. However, in a major earthquake, sections of the county could be cut off by collapsed freeways or landslides, he said. Supplies will be limited, so doctors need to learn to make the best use of them, he said.

An injured person--whose life could be saved in a hospital under normal circumstances--might not survive in a disaster because of limited transportation and supplies, Trainor said. Faced with that knowledge, a doctor might not want to use all of his supplies on a person with such poor chances, he said. But that is difficult.

“Doctors are not used to holding back,” said Dr. Bob DiLorenzo, an emergency medical instructor at the medical center. “Some victims will have to be left to die,” he said, so that others can be saved.

In addition to the supply coolers stationed throughout the county, these doctors will have specially stocked “backpacks” in their cars, said Bade, the medical director in charge of the county’s emergency medical services agency. “The days of the little black bag are gone,” he said.

“My son came in one day after falling off his skateboard, and I realized I did not have a Band-Aid in my house,” said Dr. Robert Kingston, who created the program with Bade. Now Kingston carries one of the backpacks in his car.

The backpacks cost about $1,200 and contain supplies to treat about six people, Kingston said.

So are the backpacks cost-effective?

“They are if you talk to the six people (saved),” Trainor said. It sounds like a lot of money until you consider the alternatives, he said.

If the doctor can improve someone’s condition, even a little, then the patient’s lifelong medical expenses will be reduced, because less care will be required once that person reaches the hospital.

“The savings from one person’s medical expenses would probably offset (the cost of) 100 backpacks,” Trainor said.