Disaster Medicine Second Edition

Book Preface

It is an honor to have the opportunity to present a  second edition of Disaster Medicine. The response to our work in the United States and worldwide has been both gratifying and humbling. We have made substantial changes to the content and format of the book in response to recommendations by users of this text. We hope that these changes will make Disaster Medicine more usable.
Just as the first edition was an initial effort to collect scientific and clinically useful elements of the practice of disaster medicine into a single location, this second edition is a continuation of that effort. As disasters are continually changing, so do the challenges associated with mitigation of the human impact of those disasters. We hope to improve the quality and content of this text in future years to meet some of those challenges.

My portion of this work I dedicate to Ted Kellison, RN, BSN, who left us last year, a casualty of the struggle. He was truly an ‘‘old soul’’ and we all came to benefit from his wisdom. All of us who knew Teddy miss him. He was one of those individuals who truly did make a difference in every life that he touched. So in his words:

‘‘This book belongs to everyone who has longed to make a difference, to everyone who fights the demon of disaster on any front, to everyone who has looked out over a refugee camp of ten thousand souls knowing that despite your best efforts hundreds will die before sunset, and to those whose rough hands have pulled the child from the rubble and stood crying from both exhaustion and joy. You are not alone.’’

David E. Hogan, DO,MPH, FACEP