Mass Casualty Management and the Abbey Gate Attack: An Interview with Dr. Kat Landa

In this episode of the GS ACEP podcast, guest host Dr. Anne Long interviews Dr. Katrina (“Kat”) Landa, an emergency physician and former Navy officer, about mass-casualty management in combat settings—focusing on her experience during the Abbey Gate bombing in Kabul in August 2021. Drawing on her roles as mass casualty coordinatorat the NATO Role 3 hospital in Kandahar (2018–2019) and later as officer in charge of a Shock Trauma Platoon during the Afghanistan withdrawal, Dr. Landa describes how deliberate training, a shared mental model, and well-prepared corpsmen shaped her team’s response under extreme chaos.They discuss practical frameworks for mass-casualty triage, pre-hospital damage-control resuscitation, the realities of operating in an austere environment with limited supplies, and the critical importance of communications, logistics, and integrated trainingwith line units. Dr. Landa also reflects on leadership, moral injury, and what junior military physicians and commands can do now to better prepare for future high-acuity, low-frequency events. Support the show