Koreans Raise Awareness For “Crush Syndrome,” Urge Itaewon Incident Survivors To Seek Medical Help

In relation to the Itaewon crowd surge, it has been pointed out that symptoms such as compression syndrome and crush syndrome should be looked into more thoroughly. Compression syndrome interrupts the oxygen supply due to long-term pressure on the body. When muscle cells die, toxic substances such as potassium and myoglobin are produced and accumulate in the body. When the pressure is released, the toxic substances spread through the blood all at once, causing acute organ failure and cardiac arrhythmias.

This can also occur when body tissue, blood vessels, and nerves are crushed for a long time by external objects such as traffic accidents, construction site accidents, train/explosion accidents, earthquakes, and mine accidents.

Locally, it causes fractures, internal bleeding, blister formation, and edema. It can cause a systemic circulatory disturbance, paralyzing the injured area’s senses and possibly stopping the pulse. Even if it looks like a bruise on the outside, there are many cases in which bleeding or dysfunction occurs internally.

In disaster cases like this, death due to compression syndrome occurs the most. Most of the causes of death from the Itaewon accident are presumed to be suffocation due to pressure. Still, some experts estimate that there may be multiple organ failures due to compression syndrome.

After receiving first aid to check for internal organ damage, treatment is performed according to the results. Fractured areas are treated with bone fixation, and blood vessels or nerves damaged by compression can be restored through microsurgery. If the limb is difficult to fix, it must be amputated. Treatment, such as a ventilator and chest tube insertion, is provided if the lung is injured.

At around 10:15 PM KST on October 29, a large-scale crowd surge occurred in Itaewon. As of current, the incident has killed 154 people and injured 132.