In a mass fatality incident, members of the medical examiner or coroner's office are faced with a host of complex and time-sensitive responsibilities. These include identifying victims, collecting property and evidence, determining cause and manner of death, issuing death certificates, and returning the bodies to their families. Written for all personnel involved in these incidents, Mass Fatality Management Concise Field Guide outlines the necessary components to prepare for and manage mass fatalities.

Topics covered in this practical manual include:

Administrative operations, including the release of information, death certificates, logistics, and personnel management
Incident site assessment, search and recovery, and evacuation
Morgue operations, including the admitting station, radiography, dental examination and fingerprints, DNA testing, and release of the body
Site selection and procedures for the Family Assistance Center
Issues related to weapons of mass destruction, including recognition, personnel assignment, decontamination, and the transportation of fatalities
Mass burial guidelines

Each chapter features a convenient bulleted format and includes forms and illustrations to enhance the narrative. The Appendix includes supplemental information on mass fatality personnel description, external physical examination procedures, standard internal body examination procedures (the forensic autopsy), dental identification procedures, body release, and the mobile morgue equipment inventory list. An accompanying rewritable CD-ROM allows readers to enter data electronically and print out completed forms.

The information in this book will enable those organizations tasked with managing these incidents to more effectively develop a mass fatality plan; prepare a needs-assessment list; identify local resources fo

Mary H. Dudley, M.D., is the Chief Medical Examiner for Jackson County, Missouri. Dr. Dudley has been a member of the federal mass fatality team, DMORT, since 1993 and serves as pathology section leader in the morgue operation. She has been deployed to several federally declared disasters, including the Joplin, Missouri, tornado in May 2011; Hurricane Ike in 2008; Hurricane Katrina in 2005; and the Kirksville, Missouri, airplane crash in 2004. She helped obtain grant funding for equipment and volunteer personnel to establish the Kansas City Regional Mortuary Operations Response Group (KCR-MORG), a local resource for the Kansas City metropolitan region, in 2011. She actively assists in training others in mass fatality management.