What is a Mass Casualty Incident?

A mass casualty incident (often referred to as an MCI, multiple-casualty incident or multiple-casualty situation) is an incident or series of incidents causing casualties on a scale that is beyond the normal resources of the emergency and healthcare services’ ability to manage.

The most common types of MCIs are generally caused by terrorism, mass-transportation accidents, natural disasters or an infectious disease epidemic.

Examples of well publicised mass casualty incidents include:-

  • Paddington station crash – where two trains collided outside Paddington Station in London. 31 people were killed and 523 were injured.
  • 7 July 2005 London bombings – A series of four coordinated suicide attacks in central London. Three bombs exploded on Underground trains and one was detonated on a double decker bus. The explosions killed 52 people and resulted in over 700 injuries.
  • 9/11 attacks: The September 11 2001 attacks were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda against the United States. Four passenger airliners operated by two major U.S. passenger air carriers were hijacked. Two planes where were crashed into the North and South towers of the World Trade Centre causing both 110-story towers to collapse. A third plane, was crashed into the Pentagon (the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defence) which led to a partial collapse of the building’s west side. The fourth plane, was initially flown toward Washington, D.C., but crashed into a field in Pennsylvania, after its passengers managed to overpower the hijackers.  The attacks killed 2,996 people and injured over 6,000. 
  • Manchester arena bombing – On 22 May 2017 a bomb was detonated at Manchester Arena following an Ariana Grande concert.  This resulted in 23 deaths (including the attacker) and over 400 injuries – many of which were children.

All these events tested major trauma systems, with each incident posing new challenges in differing environments, with different threats, resulting in different injuries and mortality rates.

Training for an MCI.

Although mass casualty incidents can’t be predicted, preparedness for an MCI is crucial in order to save lives. Along with planning, a well-designed and consistently updated training program is an essential component of a successful emergency response.

Simulated training is a well-known learning method that allows students to develop skills to manage his/her role in a major incident.  It enables them to be assessed on their ability to perform patient assessments and interventions, in situations where multiple casualties require triage – triage is a term used for the process of classifying patients/casualties according to the severity of their injuries to determine how quickly they need care.

However, training for a mass incident can be costly and pose risks to personnel and equipment.

MCI Training Manikins

New for 2019, our Inflatable MCI Training Manikin are designed for use during mass casualty incident training and drills.

These durable, inflatable training manikins can  save you money and time, while enabling you to assess your response system and the ability of frontline medical staff to allocate the appropriate care and medical resources  to casualties, during overwhelming emergency situations.

Quick and simple to set up, these manikins help eliminate the risks and liabilities associated with using live volunteers during physical mass casualty exercises.

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