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Improving global emergency medicine to save lives

In July 2013, Stanford physician S. V. Mahadevan, MD, and colleagues conducted a study at the largest children's hospital in Karachi, Pakistan to understand the kinds of medical emergencies that doctors treated at the facility. "What we found was astonishing," he says in this Stanford+Connect video. "By fourteen days 10 percent of [the 1266 children enrolled in the study] were dead." Mahadevan saw more children die during the one week he spent in the Pakistan hospital than in his entire 22-year-career in the United States.

Despite such dire statistics, there is hope. Mahadevan, founder of Stanford Emergency Medicine International, explains in the video how important early interventions can be made in the chain of survival to save thousands of lives in low-resource countries. Watch the full lecture to learn more about his efforts to establish Nepal's first ambulance service, India's first paramedic training program and his ongoing work to improve emergency care in Cambodia.

Previously: Stanford undergrad uncovers importance of traditional midwives in India, Providing medical, educational and technological tools in Zimbabwe and Saving lives with low-cost, global health solutions

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