Earthquake 2005: Experience with Mass Casualties at Military Hospital, Rawalpindi

A massive earthquake struck North of Pakistan on 8th October 2005

The 8th October 2005 earthquake that struck northern Pakistan and India, measuring 7.6 on Richter scale, was the world’s third-deadliest
natural disaster of the past 25 years, surpassed only by the 2004 Asian Tsunami and the 1991 cyclone in Bangladesh. An estimated 74,650 to
80,000 people lost their lives, an equal number were injured and 2.8 million were left homeless - a higher death toll than the average annual
loss to all natural and man-made disasters combined during the 1990s, excluding armed conflicts [2,3]. Most of the earthquake victims were evacuated to Rawalpindi / Islamabad both in military / civil hospitals. Military Hospital (MH) was one of the main frontline hospitals which along with Combined Military Hospital (CMH) received the major bulk of initial casualties.
The objective of this study was to evaluate the type of injuries and procedures carried out on the admitted casualties, and to present recommendations based on these experiences for improvement of disaster preparedness and management in such disasters.