WA doctor helps Taiwan burn victims

University of Notre Dame professor Dale Edgar knows first hand the trauma burns can cause after recently visiting more than 300 victims of the June 2015 explosion at the Formosa Funcoast Holiday Park in Taiwan.

The head of Notre Dame’s Burn Injury Research Node, Mr Edgar helped Taiwanese burn rehabilitation specialists with their treatment outcomes, joining two Japanese experts in delivering lectures, practical workshops, real patient demonstrations and discussion panels on burn rehabilitation.

He said mass-casualty incidents such as this usually left therapist teams underprepared and in need of expansion and ongoing training to deal with the aftermath.

“The short-term aim of the educational tour was to engage with as many physical and occupational therapists as possible and provide them with improved skills to effectively manage the physical and functional outcomes of the burn survivors from the Formosa Funcoast incident,” he said.