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• Under disaster conditions, the treatment of the individual patient cannot approach the ideal. Compromises in treatment become essential, but they follow some general principles: 1. Infections under these conditions have to be treated, rather than prevented. 2. When the supply of blood is limited, it can be used most efficiently in patients in whom the hemorrhage has been controlled; a limited quantity of blood will, therefore, save more patients with injuries in the extremities than with intraabdominal hemorrhage. 3. In the treatment of thermal injuries, priority should be given to those casualties with burns of 20 to 40%. 4. Patients with wounds of the brain can be transported to fixed hospitals without greatly increasing the mortality. 5. Patients with thoracic and abdominal wounds deserve a fairly high priority.These principles were followed in "Operation Mercy." The sorting station was divided into four areas, the admission and triage section, the resuscitation section, the holding section, and the evacuation point. A mobile emergency hospital was given a thorough trial.

• Help for survivors in a nuclear blast area must come from the periphery. Consequently it depends on organized mobile groups from the surrounding region. Such a unit, planned to include first aid for 250 casualties, was given a field trial in "Operation Mercy."Four hospitals willingly agreed to supply equipment for the four operating teams, three resuscitation teams, the sorting station, and the burn and postoperative ward. The local civil defense organization called on volunteer sources in the community, and physicians, nurses, medical technicians, and medical students were mobilized. Transportation for equipment and personnel was by means of private cars, buses, laundry trucks, and small vans. Boy Scouts and high school students cooperated by acting as casualties to the number of 250.The sequence of events, from the unannounced surprise alert until the "pack up and return" signal, lasted nine and one-half hours into the night. There was much confusion, but no one was hurt.Cooperation was found to be enthusiastic when people are asked to participate in a specific activity. The organizing and implementing of even a modest disaster unit was found to require a tremendous amount of attention to detail, but the results were gratifying.