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Emergency Medicine & First Aid vocabulary · Triage and Major Incidents

Mass casualty incident

Meaning in emergency medicine & first aid, with examples

nounCommon term

In emergency medicine & first aid, mass casualty incident means: An event, such as a major crash, explosion or building collapse, that causes more casualties than local emergency services can normally handle at once.

In Turkish: kitlesel yaralanmalı olay, çok sayıda yaralının olduğu olay

How it is used

Shortened to MCI, mostly in the US; British services usually say 'major incident'. When one is declared, special command structures, triage systems and hospital plans are activated. Staff talk about declaring, managing and standing down an MCI.

Example sentences

  1. A mass casualty incident was declared after the bus overturned.

  2. We run a mass casualty incident exercise at the stadium twice a year.

Common collocations

  • declare a mass casualty incident
  • MCI plan
  • major incident
  • MCI triage
  • triageThe process of quickly sorting patients by how urgently they need treatment, so that the sickest are seen first rather than in order of arrival.
  • triage tagA coloured label attached to a casualty at a major incident to show their treatment priority, so that other rescuers can see it at a glance.
  • walking woundedInjured people who are still able to walk at the scene of an incident; in triage they are usually the lowest priority group.
  • casualtyA person who is injured or suddenly ill and needs first aid; in news reports, also a person killed or injured in an accident, disaster or war.

More terms: Triage and Major Incidents

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This page explains English vocabulary for learners. It is not medical advice.