Loss of cabin pressure in a military transport: a mass casualty with decompression illnesses.
Presented here is the sudden cabin depressurization of a military C-130 aircraft carrying 66 personnel. They suffered a depressurization from 2134 to 7317 m, resulting in a potential 66-person mass casualty. The aircrew were able to descend to below 3049 m in less than 5 min. They landed in the Kingdom of Bahrain--the nearest hyperbaric recompression facility. Three cases of peripheral neurologic DCS and one case of spinal DCS were identified. Limited manning, unique host nation concerns, and limited available assets led to difficulties in triage, patient transport, and asset allocation. These led to difficult decisions regarding when and for whom to initiate ground level oxygen or hyperbaric recompression therapy.
Johnston
Mickaila J
MJ
Naval Special Warfare Group Four, 2220 Schofield Road Building 108, Norfolk, VA 23521, USA. mickaila2000@yahoo.com
D000060:Accidents, Aviation; D000337:Aerospace Medicine; D000531:Altitude; D001274:Atmospheric Pressure; D003665:Decompression Sickness / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D006931:Hyperbaric Oxygenation; D008297:Male; D054527:Mass Casualty Incidents; D008889:Military Personnel; D010102:Oxygen Inhalation Therapy