NEUROLOGICAL SEQUELAE OF THE OPERATION BABY LIFT AIRPLANE DISASTER

The aircraft disaster of the first flight of Operation ''Baby Lift'', which departed from Saigon, Vietnam, April 4, 1975, was survived by 14 9 orphaned children on their way to adoptive homes in the West. It had 157 passenger fatalities. The aircraft disaster exposed the surviving children to a complex disaster environment in which subatmospheric de compression, hypoxia, and deceleration were experienced, many children suffered a transient unconsciousness. We examined 135 surviving child ren between 1978 and 1985. The U.S. resident children were examined in the years 1979 to 1982 at an average age of 8 years and 6 months. The y displayed the following symptomatology: attention deficit (>75%), hy peractivity (>65%), impulse disorder (>55%), learning disabilities (>3 5%), speech and language pathology (>70%), and soft neurological signs (>75%). The European children were examined in the years 1983 to 1985 . On arrival at the adoptive home, 2 weeks after the accident they dis played the following symptomatology: muscle hypotonia (26%), seizures (2.5%), and regressed developmental milestones (33%). At the time of t he diagnostic evaluations (1983 to 1985) the average age was 11 years and 8 months. They displayed the following symptomatology: attention d eficit (59%), hyperactivity (52%), impulse disorder (48%), learning di sabilities (43%), soft neurological signs (43%), epilepsy (16%), and s peech and language pathology (34%). We conclude that a complex disaste r environment can cause brain damage in children without prolonged unc onsciousness, and that victims of disasters require a thorough evaluat ion from a multidisciplinary team.