Health Leaders Discuss Lessons Learned From Asiana Crash Response
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) — The American College of Surgeons met on Tuesday in San Francisco's Mission Bay, where health leaders discussed the lessons learned from the emergency response to the crash of Asiana Airlines Flight 214.
Margaret Knutson, Chief of Surgery at San Francisco General Hospital, attended to patients following the July 6th crash. Knutson said enough thought wasn't given to potential contamination of patients, or to cultural differences in providing information.
Health Leaders Meet In SF's Mission Bay To Discuss Lessons Learned From Asiana Crash Response
"How the communication can be improved between all the hospitals is something that should be looked at," said Knutson. "But I can say that I thought the triage that they did at the airport was phenomenal."
Knuston also said there was difficulty with identifying people through their passports because in some cases, identification was in luggage and not on the persons themselves.
Former Speaker pro Tempore of the California State Assembly Fiona Ma said there are personal steps people can take to alleviate this problem.
"I'm actually going to tweet after this that one lesson learned is that women actually need to keep their IDs on them while they're sitting in their seats in case of an emergency situation, so they can be identified and reconciled with their families quicker."
Ma also suggested more neighborhood translators be on hand in the event of an emergency.
