Medical response team aids Nepal earthquake victims

A six-person medical response team from the Keck School of Medicine of USC departed May 4 to deliver supplies and assist with critical care of victims of the catastrophic April 25 earthquake in Nepal.
The response was spearheaded by Keck School of Medicine Dean Carmen A. Puliafito, MD, MBA, and Demetrios Demetriades, MD, chief, division of trauma and surgical critical care, Department of Surgery, Keck School of Medicine, along with other members of the trauma and surgical critical care team. Both the Keck School of Medicine and the LAC +USC Medical Center provided medical supplies for the trip.
All members of the Nepal team were part of a similar effort in 2010 after an earthquake in Haiti. The Nepal group includes two critical care/trauma surgeons, an emergency department physician, an anesthesiologist, a nurse anesthetist and a registered nurse. The trip to Nepal is scheduled for nine days.
Members of the medical response team are Lydia Lam, MD, trauma surgeon and assistant professor, Department of Surgery; Ramona Paolim, registered nurse, LAC+USC Medical Center; Karen Kim Embrey, CRNA, assistant professor, Department of Anesthesiology; Edward Newton, MD, interim chief and professor, Department of Emergency Medicine; team leader Kenji Inaba, MD, trauma surgeon and associate professor, Department of Surgery; and Shihab Sugeir, M.D., assistant professor, Department of Anesthesiology.

— Leslie Ridgeway