'Getting out of the dark': Implications of load shedding on healthcare in South Africa and strategies to enhance preparedness.

Power failures and the lack of a robust contingency plan could prove catastrophic in any healthcare environment, with varied and far-reaching consequences. In 2003, a 28% rise in both accidental and non-accidental deaths was recorded in the USA as a result of mass power outages. For every day with a power outage lasting longer than 2 hours, hospital mortality has been estimated to increase by 43%.

Occult abdominal injuries to airbag-protected crash victims: a challenge to trauma systems.

A multidisciplinary, automobile crash investigation team at the University of Miami School of Medicine, William Lehman Injury Research Center of Jackson Memorial Hospital/Ryder Trauma Center in Miami, Florida, is conducting a detailed medical and engineering study. The focus is restrained (seatbelts, airbag, or both) occupants involved in frontal crashes who have been severely injured. More than 60 crashes have been included in the study to date.