The Chinese national emergency medical rescue team response to the Sichuan Lushan earthquake

At 8:02 on 20 April 2013, an earthquake of magnitude 7.0 struck the Lushan area of Sichuan province, China. The affected population was 1.99 million, spread over 19 cities involving 115 countries. Over 458,000 people were resettled urgently (http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/ 2013Yaanearthquake). The number of those injured and killed is reported to be 13,000 and 196 by the time 12:00, 26 April (http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2013-04-27/090126968052.shtml). The decision to set out an emergency medical rescue team was taken at a national level the Ministry of Health, and the immediate response was funded by The General Hospital of the Chinese People’s Armed Police Forces. The request to the medical team came through 2 h after the earthquake, and the team arrived at Yaan People’s Hospital with medicine and equipment 14 h later. This paper describes the team’s experience during the immediate aftermath of the earthquake and the following 8 days.