Updated May 12

A six-person medical response team from the Keck School of Medicine of USC returned May 12 from its mission to deliver supplies and assist with critical care of victims of the catastrophic 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Nepal on April 25.

The USC team had departed Nepal shortly before a 7.3 magnitude aftershock that struck about 90 miles from the epicenter of the first earthquake.

The response was spearheaded by Keck School of Medicine Dean Carmen A. Puliafito and Demetrios Demetriades, chief, division of trauma and surgical critical care in the Department of Surgery, along with other members of the trauma and surgical critical care team. Both the Keck School and the Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center provided medical supplies for the trip.

All members of the Nepal team were part of a similar effort in 2010 after an earthquake in Haiti. The Nepal group includes two critical care/trauma surgeons, an emergency department physician, an anesthesiologist, a nurse anesthetist and a registered nurse. The trip to Nepal is scheduled for nine days.

Members of the medical response team are Lydia Lam, trauma surgeon and assistant professor, Department of Surgery; Ramona Paolim, registered nurse, LAC+USC Medical Center; Karen Kim Embrey, assistant professor, Department of Anesthesiology; Edward Newton, interim chief and professor, Department of Emergency Medicine; team leader Kenji Inaba, trauma surgeon and associate professor, Department of Surgery; and Shihab Sugeir, assistant professor, Department of Anesthesiology.

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