TY - JOUR T1 - Van earthquake: development of emergency medicine in a country JF - Emergency Medicine Journal JO - Emerg Med J SP - 689 LP - 689 DO - 10.1136/emermed-2012-201460 VL - 29 IS - 8 AU - Nurettin Özgür Doğan AU - Gökhan Aksel Y1 - 2012/08/01 UR - http://emj.bmj.com/content/29/8/689.abstract N2 - Turkey experienced a destructive earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 near the city of Van on 23 October 2011. The earthquake caused significant mortality and morbidity with a large number of homeless and jobless people. According to official records, 644 people died and 252 people survived from the wreckage.1 However, the destructive effect of the earthquake was greater than expected for two reasons: (1) Seasonal and local characteristics of Van complicated appropriate transport of relief to the region. (2) Public buildings, including hospitals and other health centres, were destroyed or seriously damaged.In Turkey, emergency medicine was declared as a new specialty in 1993. Since that year, the emergency viewpoint has been raised in many emergency departments and prehospital settings. Turkey is one of the countries in which natural disasters such as earthquakes or floods commonly occur. For example, … ER -