Abstract
AIM:
To describe the case of a patient with a severe head injury at a depth of about 1000 m from the cave entrance in Bavaria, Germany, who received pre-hospital trauma care for 12 days until evacuation.
RESULTS:
Search and rescue (SAR) operation involved 728 rescuers, 202 working directly in the cave (for a total of 9239 h) and 7 physicians from five countries. At 6-month follow-up, the patient had recovered completely and resumed his job.
CONCLUSION:
This case highlights several pitfalls of trauma care in complex SAR operations, which often rely on expert knowledge and are not yet evidence-based practice.