Information on Japanese Earthquake/ Tsunami
Dear Colleague,
As the severity of the devastation in Japan caused by last Friday’s massive earthquake and resultant tsunami continues to unfold, many of you have contacted us wondering what the American College of Surgeons and our individual Fellows should, or should not, do to help.
Information provided by our contacts at the National Disaster Medical System indicates that disaster medical teams had been deployed but are currently being demobilized and/or taken off alert. We have been told that there has been no request by the Japanese government for US medical support at this time because the Japanese medical infrastructure is very good and operational. Several Japanese DMAT teams exist that are similar in composition to our DMATs, and Japan is probably one of the best prepared nations in the world when it comes to this type of disaster.
We have been in contact with some of our Fellows in Japan and will continue our efforts to reach others who may need our assistance. Moreover, we will continue to make available the resources of the ACS Committee on Trauma and our Operation Giving Back (OGB) program.
Fellows who are interested can find links to the ReliefWeb and USAID websites as well as information on radiation exposure and treatment the OBG website at http://www.operationgivingback.facs.org/content3377.html . Information on making donations to organizations that are responding to this disaster is also available via several links on the OGB page.
We will continue to monitor the situation and update the OGB Web page to let you know about ways in which the surgical community can help.
With all best regards,
Dave
David B. Hoyt, MD, FACS
Executive Director
American College of Surgeons
Online March 14, 2011