The international medical exercise called MASCAL (Mass Casualty) was held in recent days, at the military base AB 101 in Niamey, in which the military medical structures of the international contingents of the United States, France, Germany and Italy present in Niger, they were able to assess their skills in managing an event with a high number of injuries.
The Bilateral Support Mission in Niger (MISIN) participated in the activity, under the command of Brigadier General Claudio Dei, with the health team on staff who, in this type of intervention, in the first aid and transport of the wounded, they are fundamental in the real case, for the salvation of human lives.
In particular, a road accident was simulated in which numerous passengers were involved, with injuries of various kinds. Immediate coordination of the interventions of all the international military health structures that, with the emergency vehicles, rushed to the place of the event, intervening on the injured, through a methodical evaluation of the emergency priorities.
Subsequently, the personnel involved in the accident simulation were transported to the French and German "ROLE 1" medical center, where each patient, based on the severity of the wounds assessed in the "triage" by means of a color code, is been the recipient of appropriate care.
The "Mass Casualty" refers, as a scenario, to any type of accident where the number, severity, type of injured people and the place where they work requires an extraordinary use of resources in terms of men and, above all, of capacity of health management of the event.
The purpose of the exercise was to test the preparation and coordination of the international military health personnel present in the Nigerian air base, called to provide a prompt response to the simulated critical event.
The exercise was a valid opportunity to evaluate the level of preparation achieved and the coordination capacity between the Italian and the US, French and German healthcare teams.
