Why you need to know
A year after a deadly explosion at a Taiwan water park, the EU and a number of countries are seeking advice from Taiwan on how to treat large numbers of burn victims.
The News Lens
Date: June 4, 2016
By: Chang Shin-wei
A horrible dust explosion at the Formosa Fun Coast recreational water park in Bali, New Taipei
Photo Credit: Reuters/達志影像
City, in June last year, which caused 12 deaths and more than 500 injuries — 300 with burns on more than 60% of their body — made headlines worldwide. A year later, Taiwan’s ability to handle the complex emergency has drawn the attention of several countries that want to learn from its experience.
Last month, the E.U. invited a commitee from Taiwan to share its experiences dealing with burn patients on such a large scale.
The June 27 explosion was the largest public safety incident since the 1999 Jiji Earthquake (also known as the 921 Earthquake), which left more than 2,400 dead.
According to Business Today, the dust explosion broke the world record for the amount of burn patients, but the overall death rate was 2.4%. Among the reasons for the low death rate were the rapid spiriting of patients to hospitals all over the nation, the activation by all the medical facilities involved of mass-casualty incident management systems, and an effective division of the workload. [FULL STORY]
