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Russia: Moscow Emergency Teams Were Prepared, But Not For Gas A senior Russian health official has disputed accounts that emergency medical services were unprepared to address the casualties from a fentanyl-based aerosol used to subdue Chechen extremists in an early morning raid Saturday, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, Oct. 31). Crews from 450 emergency teams at the scene carried the antidote — Naloxone — but more was needed, said Igor Elkis, chief doctor of Moscow’s ambulance service. “At the theater we were prepared to help people suffering from terrorists’ hands … we expected victims of explosion, gunfire,” Elkis said. “When we learned that the gas was used, we sent more Naloxone to the site” (Steven Myers, New York Times, Nov.1). On Thursday, the city’s hospitals still held 184 freed hostages, of whom eight were in serious condition (Moscow Times, Nov. 1). Another health official said that confusion about the security situation might have led to a limited medical response. Russian authorities had been listening to the Chechens’ phone conversations and believed a second attack might have been imminent. Medical officials did not want to commit all their resources if another wave of patients was on the way, according to Irina Nazarova, head of the Russian Emergency Medicine Center. “At any point they could blow up another building, and nobody knew how many victims there would be,” Nazarova said. She also said the medical system acquitted itself well in the situation (Mark Mackinnon, Globe and Mail, Nov. 1). Reports have continued to surface, however, of the secrecy that surrounded the use of the gas in the early morning raid last Saturday. Rescue workers did not know how much of the antidote to administer, the Times reported today. In interviews with a Russian newspaper, some said they used 5 cubic millimeters while others used 10. The commandos who pumped the gas into the theater’s ventilation system and stormed the theater did not know what gas they were using, the Times reported. A doctor who did not want to be named agreed that there was confusion in the medical response and said that hospitals expected gunshots, not gas. Hostages also lacked key first aid assistance in the immediate aftermath of the raid, the doctor said. The alleged confusion, however, was not intentional. “It wasn’t an evil plot,” the doctor said. “It was just a Soviet mess” (Myers, New York Times).
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