I'm having a terrible thought about the Haiti tragedy -- that all this time and effort has been put into finding 70 people trapped in the debris while at least that many and probably many more have died because they couldn't receive even first aid treatment in the streets. Search and rescue is glamorous and uplifting when a person is pulled out alive; but how many people are dying in those same 20 hours that those 80 people could have saved, just by walking around. At a hospital in an emergency, there is a protocol of triage, where the dying are not the first priority but the living who might die if not treated. However, triage doesn't apply to S&R, except to decide where to dig. All these teams received priority for landing at the airport and priority for transportation to the site. This might work where there are plenty of others to assist in the first aid process, but is this the priority in this situation. Do responders need a triage plan for what gets delivered in what kind of an emergency. Does a S&R team deserved priority over a hospital team in this dire emergency. Seeing people pulled alive brings joy and relief to one person's friends and families, but at what cost to thousands without such help. There was an article about a hospice that was damaged but the people were without food and water. It was only a mile or so from the airport. Is it triage to not rush food and water to this site, while rushing it to an orphanage?
By saying this out loud, I'm struck by how heartless this sounds, but triage is heartless but effective in providing the best response to the most people.
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