Lessons Learned From a Landslide Catastrophe in Rio de Janeiro Brazil

The authors discuss lessons learned from this flood and landslide event in 2011, with a focus on pre-hospital and hospital organization and management of patients. They also describe the most common injuries treated (injuries were to the extremities, most requiring only wound cleaning, debridement, and suture), and note that the primary cause of death was from asphyxia due to drowning or mud burial.