2014 Volume 5 Issue 2 Pages 115-121
The Tohoku earthquake and tsunami affected a wide area in the northeast of Japan. We are working at the epicenter of the disaster area, the university hospital in Sendai, the capital of Miyagi prefecture, where 10,000 people died and 500 were seriously injured. We performed acute blood purification (BP) at the advanced emergency and critical care center, assisting the hospital at the frontlines of the affected area. Furthermore, we supported chronic hemodialysis patients who were anxious about their regular dialysis getting interrupted due to the suspension of electrical power, water, and medical supply. The injured with critical crush syndrome (CS) had never visited our hospital previously. However, after 11 March 2011, BP was requested for patients with non-surgical multi organ failure (MOF). Pneumonia was a serious complaint, caused by near-drowning, exposure to mine dust in the debris, living in evacuation shelters, or staying in damaged houses. Every resident in the affected area suffered due to the post-disaster environment and the delayed recovery of infrastructure. These factors also threatened the residents’ health by causing acute infections or aggravating their chronic illness. This brought to our attention the necessity of BP for MOF as well as the complications in patients undergoing chronic dialysis. To summarize, different BP strategies should be created for various natural disasters such as earthquakes, whether or not they are accompanied by a tsunami. We should also prepare for dealing with MOF as a part of disaster critical care during the recovery phase.
