Medical evacuation is a whole series of sequential measures to assist all victims, as well as their further transportation. Main stages:
- First aid on the battlefield (on the principle of self and mutual assistance).
- The use of necessary emergency medicine to prevent the death of the patient. Most often, at this point, manipulations of anesthesia, temporary stopping of bleeding and immobilization can be performed. In addition, at this stage it is recommended to put a dropper with saline if it may be needed in the future, because after an hour or more, the veins are spasmed due to a decrease in the BCC. Next, the patient is transported to the next stage.
- Medical assistance. Conventionally, it can be divided into first aid, qualified and specialized medical care.
As you already understood, at each subsequent stage of evacuation, the volume of medical services provided (and their quality) increases.
Many people believe that the concept of "medical evacuation" is applicable only in wartime, but this is not so. The same principles are relevant in peacetime, when the patient is moved from the lower link of the provision of medical care (clinic) to a higher one. However, in this case, this term does not apply.
It is worth noting that medical evacuation often depends on preparation for the transportation of the patient. In addition, there is a direct dependence of the state of the victim on the quality of transportation. For example, transportation of bedridden patients can significantly worsen their condition.
Considering the evacuation as a system of medical care, it is possible to identify both positive and negative sides.
Positive:
- continuity when moving patients;
- The fastest possible first aid.
Negative:
- long duration of transportation to the final stage (providing qualified and narrow specialized assistance);
- low volume of medical manipulations in the initial stages.
It is worth noting that medical evacuation cannot exist without medical sorting. The latter is carried out at all stages of the provision of medical care and represents the choice of extremely severe, severe, moderate and slightly injured patients, taking into account the possibility of their transportation. Sorting allows you to competently distribute limited opportunities in the volume of assistance, highlighting those who need it immediately. Those victims, whose condition is stable, are waiting in line for medical care.
Medical evacuation during the hostilities has now undergone significant changes. The creation of special mobile military hospitals made it possible to bring medical assistance as close as possible to the battlefield. This makes it possible not only to reduce the duration of the movement of victims to the final stage, but even to abandon some stages. For example, after the implementation of first aid (by the type of self-help or mutual assistance), a patient without additional ineffective manipulations is transferred directly to the stage of providing qualified care. Such changes in the provision of emergency medical care significantly increase the survival of the wounded, and also reduces their recovery time.
Today even medical evacuation is used for medical evacuation, which is used in severe cases both in peacetime and in wartime.
Thus, undergoing a series of significant changes, medical evacuation in an updated form is actively used today in the territories where military operations are carried out.