The 2002 hostage crisis at a Moscow theater transfixed the attention of the world. While the initial assault, led by Spetsnaz commandos, successfully secured the building, the Russian security force's utter failure at coordinating with medical services led to the preventable deaths of over 100 hostages.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFrom 1949 to 1950, an acute epidemic of schistosomiasis struck several elite units of the People's Liberation Army during the Chinese Civil War that were preparing for an amphibious invasion of Taiwan. The crucial delay brought by the sudden outbreak of the disease may have cost communist forces control of the strategic island, changing the geopolitical calculus of the Pacific in the decades since.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn 1802, the deadliest recorded epidemic of yellow fever struck a French expeditionary force, permanently destroying Napoleon Bonaparte's ambition to re-conquer Haiti and secure a North American empire. Toussaint L'Ouverture, Haitian revolutionary, effectively used his medical experience to spread this disease among French troops.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSulfur dioxide (SO2), a chemical produced from the burning of sulfur-containing materials, has a long history in chemical warfare. While it was largely used during ancient sieges, there were numerous proposals to weaponize it for the open battlefield in the early modern age.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Trust is a critical component of competency committees given their high-stakes decisions. Research from outside of medicine on group trust has not focused on trust in group decisions, and "group trust" has not been clearly defined. The purpose was twofold: to examine the definition of trust in the context of group decisions and to explore what factors may influence trust from the perspective of those who rely on competency committees through a proposed group trust model.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: In November 2014, the U.S. Army held a readiness summit to address concerns about the accuracy of medical reporting systems.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSpontaneous pneumomediastinum is a fairly uncommon complication of diabetic ketoacidosis. Knowledge of the clinical and radiographic manifestation is important for the proper management of patients since the disease usually follows a benign evolution. We report a case of a 20-year-old soldier who presented with a pneumomediastinum that was initially falsely attributed to a motor vehicular crash.
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