Putera Club ambulances to the rescue

PUTRAJAYA: The Emergency Bureau of Putera 1Malaysia Club will place 11 ambulances at several hotspots along the highways from today until Sept 5 in view of the Hari Raya rush.

The ambulance unit was launched by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak at the lobby of the Perdana Putra building here yesterday.

Club president Datuk Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim said the ambulances would be on 24-hour stand-by at several locations along the Kuala Lumpur-Bukit Kayu Hitam Subang toll, Sungai Besi-Johor Baru toll and Gombak-Gua Musang toll highways.

“The vehicles will have emergency equipment and there will be 11 volunteer doctors and 66 paramedics made up of college students and former Mat Rempit (illegal motorcycle racers),” he told reporters.

“We will work with the highway authorities, police, and the Fire and Rescue Department,” he added. — Bernama

Nurse in ambulance-taxi collision succumbs to injuries

MALACCA: A nurse who crawled out alive from an overturned ambulance on Monday has died.

Yuhana Yasin, 30, from Parit Jawa, Muar, suffered serious internal injuries in the 6.50pm accident when a taxi rammed the rear of the ambulance at the Seri Negeri/MITC junction in Ayer Keroh.

A critically-ill patient Maryam Baba, 73, who was being rushed to Hospital Kuala Lumpur in the same ambulance, also died at Malacca Hospital due to serious head injuries sustained in the accident. Full news here

On Duty: Sunway Lagoon

Johns Hopkins Medical Programme In Malaysia Will Be Phenomenal Lure, Says PM

From D.Arul Rajoo

WASHINGTON, May 20 (Bernama) -- The opening of the world-renowned teaching and research medical institution Johns Hopkins University in Serdang, Malaysia this September would send ripples throughout the region and would be a phenomenal lure, said Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

The prime minister said it was expected to attract students not only from other nations in the region but also from Middle East and the Indian sub-continent.

"I am confident the Johns Hopkins medical programme will be a phenomenal lure," he said at an event to mark the establishment of the Johns Hopkins Dr Mohan Swami Institute for International Medical Education at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, about an hour's drive from here.

Najib arrived here today after a three-day working visit to New York where he charmed and impressed his American audience at the Invest Malaysia New York and meetings with captains of industries with his visions, and outlined multiple programmes under his leadership to turn the nation into a high income economy.

Also present at the event today were Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Khaled Nordin, Malaysian Ambassador to the United States Datuk Jamaluddin Jarjis, Tan Sri Mohan Swami and top leadership of the university, including Edward D. Miller, the Chief Executive Officer of Johns Hopkins University.

The Johns Hopkins medical programme would come under collaboration with Perdana University, which offers the first private teaching hospital with world-class medical facilities to be established in Serdang under the Mohan's Chase Perdana group.

Najib said he was pleased to note that to staff all these facilities, there had been very good response not only from the local faculty in Baltimore but from others around the world, to teach, work and practice in the Malaysian campus.

According to the premier, his administration had embarked on a plan to actively seek out and encourage Malaysians abroad to return home and at the same time stepping up efforts for skills training at home.

"That is the one reason why I am personally so excited about this partnership and why I couldn't be more pleased with your decision to establish not only a graduate medical school, but also the first private teaching hospital and, more so, a centre for cutting edge clinical research," he added.

Najib said Johns Hopkins was known for its pioneering work in many areas of medicine, among them the use of rubber gloves during surgery which had now become a universal practice.

"It has had a positive impact on the rubber industry in Malaysia, which is now the world's largest producer and exporter of medical rubber gloves," he added.

Najib said the establishment of the university would encourage more top graduates of Malaysia's universities to stay home, as they now had the chance to participate in the world's best medical school curriculum and advanced clinical research without leaving their country.

Dr Mohan said the first intake of students would be in September, with 100 students reporting at its temporary campus near the Mardi headquarters while a permanent campus was expected to be ready by 2013.

"We hope to take 75 students from Malaysia. About 50 JPA (Public Service Department) scholarship holders are expected to study in our university," said Dr Mohan who was the first Chancellor of HIHT University in India in 2008.

Dr Mohan, who is also the Executive Chairman of the Bursa Malaysia-listed Turiya Berhad, said the total development programme, including building a 600-bed teaching hospital, would be around RM2.4 billion.

The Perdana university, which will offer post-graduate studies beginning next year, is to be built on a 52-hectare site in Serdang and is a totally private-funded initiative by Turiya Berhad and Chase Perdana working closely with the Public Private Partnership Unit (3PU).

The project was specifically mentioned in the 2011 budget presented by Najib on Oct 15 last year.

CDC Recommends Preparing for All Disasters -- Even Zombies

by Tamara L. Morris

Normal natural disasters are floods, tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes and being prepared for disaster means being ready for any type of emergency -- including zombies. On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention blogged about preparing for disaster and reminded readers that in the event of a zombie apocalypse, basic preparedness will help even if there are flesh-eaters roaming.

The CDC recommends that planning ahead for zombies is really no different than preparing for other types of disaster. The same basic principles apply.

Planning ahead for any type of disaster or emergency requires the same basic items: Food (nonperishable of course) and water (one gallon per day per person), medications (both over the counter and prescription medications), tools and supplies (basic stuff like utility knives, duct tape, radio, flashlights, batteries, etc.), sanitation and hygiene (soap, shampoo, bleach, feminine products, towels and lots of toilet paper), clothing and bedding (extra clothes for every family member, blankets), important documents (copies of birth certificates, social security cards, driver's licenses, insurance cards, etc.), first aid supplies.

As with any other emergency, in the event of zombies you should have an emergency plan that includes evacuation plans and a safe place to get away from the zombies.

According to the CDC blog, if a zombie apocalypse breaks out, the CDC will investigate the event just like they would any other disease outbreak. CDC investigation and assistance would include "consultation, lab testing and analysis, patient management and care, tracking of contacts, and infection control (including isolation and quarantine)." Just like any other disease outbreak, the CDC would try to determine where and how the outbreak started and would make every effort to determine how to best deal with an outbreak of zombies.

Learning the source of the infection would include discovering if a virus or toxin caused the outbreak and if there is any treatment or cure.

The CDC encourages citizens to be prepared for any emergency event--whether it is zombies or the more common hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and earthquakes. Emergency planning for zombies will also suffice in the event of such natural disasters but as always the CDC urges everyone to be ready for whatever might a hazard and disruption of our daily lives.

It is good to know the CDC is willing to take the time to address the concerns of the public rather than scoff at the idea of a zombie apocalypse. Even more so, anyone who is prepared to face zombies is ready to deal with whatever Mother Nature chooses to throw their way, so it's all good.

Tamara L. Morris is certified as a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) member and is a trained Skywarn Stormspotter through the National Weather Service. She has received interpretive training regarding the New Madrid Seismic Zone through EarthScope -- a program of the National Science Foundation. She researches and writes about earthquakes, volcanoes, tornadoes and other natural phenomena.

Taken from Yahoo News here.

Keep the airwaves clear

Received a notification from Malaysian Amateur Radio Emergency Service Society (MARES) just now regarding earthquake efforts in Japan. Below is the request:-

Dear all Malaysian Ham Members,

In the view of the recent Japanese earthquake and tsunami, we would like to
request our ham members to observe the following request, to clear the
frequencies for Japanese rescue effort.

The following was received from Mr. Dave Raycroft, VA3RJ of I.C.P.O.
(Islands, Castles & Portable Operations). Also, below are some important and
usefull links for all.

===========================================
Message from Toru, JG1EIQ

Following freq's are assigned for emergency QSO. Please be clear. Thank you
for your kind help!

Ops JARL & volunteers - 3520 to 3530, 7025 to 7035, 14090 to 14110, 21190 to
21200, 28190 to 28210, 50100, 51000, 14100, 14500, 430100, 433000 kHz.

DXped Ops - Please kindly consider QSX freq & RTTY freq.

73 and Good DX!
Dave Raycroft, VA3RJ
Home of ICPO: http://webhome.idirect.com/~va3rj/

Malaysia to send Smart team to Japan.. NOT

A piece of news came through regarding Malaysia's offer to send its SMART team to Japan to help out with the earthquake rescue effort. According to 'The Star' on 13th March:-

PEKAN: A Special Malaysia Disaster Assistance and Rescue (Smart) team comprising 15 members and six tracker dogs has been put on standby to be flown to tsunami-hit Japan on two RMAF C-130 aircraft.
A Malaysian medical team is also expected to leave with the team. As at 2am today, the planes had not left Subang airport.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said the Japanese government had requested assistance to help with search and rescue efforts in the country.

Then on the 14th of March, from the same newspaper :-

KOTA KINABALU: The Japanese government has put on hold the offer to send the Special Malaysia Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (SMART) for the time being.
Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman said the Japanese government had thanked Malaysia for offering to send in the SMART team but felt it was not necessary at this point in time.
“The Japanese government had informed us that the services of the SMART team are not necessary but they will notify us if it is needed later. Thus the team has been asked to stand down for now,” he said here.

Did the Japanese government request Malaysian government's help or not in the first place? Or was the government jumping the gun altogether? When I read the first report, I was already skeptical of statement regarding the request from the Japanese government.

My thoughts were that the Japanese government must already have a large pool of trained and experienced rescue workers especially since they are prone to earthquakes. What could a 15 man Smart team from Malaysia do?

And on the same topic, should a major disaster strike Malaysia, do we have even 10 percent of the numbers of trained and expert rescue workers compared to those in Japan?

Libyan rebel medics learn fast on bloody front line

BREGA, Libya (Reuters) - Two corpses, spilled intestines and severed limbs; medic Osama Jazwi is no longer fazed by his daily routine on the front line of fighting between rebels and forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi.

"Yesterday we also had a rocket attack, burns, broken bones, shrapnel wounds," said 33-year-old anaesthesiologist Jazwi on Saturday, in a tiny rural clinic which has become the first stop for rebels wounded after fighting Gaddafi warplanes and tanks.

After basic emergency assistance at the clinic in Brega, some 780 km (480 miles) east of the capital Tripoli, patients are sent to bigger medical facilities further into the rebel-held eastern territory.

Rebel medics have faced a steep learning curve since protests against Gaddafi's rule started in mid-February, with volunteers, including many young medical students, suddenly having to handle bodies torn apart by shelling and air strikes.

"I'm only a dentistry student, but I'm doing my best. The difficulty is the wounds, I'm just not used to it. I've seen a head in pieces," said fresh-faced Ahmed al-Dersi, 18, after borrowing a reporter's satellite telephone to call his mother.

Mobile network coverage is patchy on the front line in rebel-held east Libya, where Dersi, wearing scrubs, waited by his ambulance under a fierce desert sun. Nerves were frayed as rebels and medics scanned the sky for a warplane overhead.

The vehicle had to be moved several times that afternoon to try to avoid air strikes by Gaddafi's aircraft, bombs landing only a few hundred metres away each time.

The poorly equipped and youthful rebel medics have no radios, making avoiding danger difficult.

Complicating matters are inexperienced rebel fighters who take cover around ambulances and bring their weapons into hospitals, attracting enemy fire, said Ezedin Bousedra, a 34-year-old surgeon.

"On Thursday, a driver and three paramedics were killed when a missile hit their ambulance. Another group was captured by Gaddafi's forces, logistically it's hard for us to mobilise properly," said Bousedra.

READY TO FLEE

Bousedra had been at the hospital in Ras Lanuf further west, but had to evacuate after the oil town fell to Gaddafi forces, their mortar bombs landing within the hospital grounds, he said.

His new workplace in Brega is more of a family clinic, its pharmacy stacked high with aspirin and other medicines for minor ailments, not the supplies needed for major trauma.

The clinic has no shortage of volunteers, however, and people flooded in to do everything from cook to wash bloody floors. Some had come from abroad, including an Egyptian surgeon, a Libyan plastic surgeon living in South Africa and another two Libyan medics from the United States and Ireland.

Accurate figures on the dead and the wounded are difficult to determine given patients are spread throughout hospitals in east Libya, communications are difficult and no one seems to be collating the numbers centrally.

Volunteers with no medical experience have been trained to identify and treat minor wounds, Bousedra said, leaving him free to do more heavy duty work such as amputations. His jeans and green medical apron were splotched with blood stains.

"The magnitude of the injuries has been difficult to adjust to. One guy had half his brains falling out of the back of his head," he said.

In the back of the clinic, a few volunteers sat glued to the television, watching for the latest developments as Gaddafi forces pushed rebels east.

Brega, on Libya's main east-west coastal highway, is likely to be the next town in their sights.

Bousedra said the clinic would evacuate if Brega fell.

On the road outside, there was a blackout to avoid air strikes, leaving only moonlight. Rebel fighters trained their eyes on the road west in the darkness, watching and waiting.

Copyright © 2011 Reuters

Spanner in the works.. No certified course for paramedics in Malaysia?

From The Star

Need to formalise career path for paramedics

THERE is no certified course for paramedics in Malaysia that is endorsed by the Health Ministry, Kuala Lumpur Hospital emergency and trauma department head Prof Datuk Dr Abu Hassan Asaari Abdullah (in above picture) said.

“In our current system, we are using medical assistants, which is not ideal. What we do have now are not full-fledged paramedics,” he said.

He said there was a diploma in pre-hospital care offered by the Open University Kuala Lumpur, but it had yet to be endorsed by the ministry.

He explained that the university would have to apply to the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) to get the diploma recognised.

Quoting the Medical Act 1971 Section 33 (2B), he added that only those certified by the Health Ministry were allowed to use specific medical equipment such as bandages, sphygmomano meter (to measure blood pressure), stethoscope and hypodermic syringe.

“The Government has to formalise a career path for paramedics.

“Red Crescent, St John Ambulance and the like have paramedics trained under their own courses which have also not been officially endorsed by the Government.

“However we accept it, and they also assist us in the pre-hospital services,” said Prof Abu Hassan, who is also president of the Malaysian Society of Traumatology and Emergency Medicine.

He agreed that only 50% of ambulances were well-equipped and many were old vehicles. He believes all ambulances must be equipped with automated external defibrillator (AED) and immobilisation sets.

“The Malaysian public deserves a comprehensive integrated ambulance service that is efficient so that all areas can be served well,” he said.

He pointed out that 60% of the emergency calls, however, were pranks and hoaxes and the percentage used to be as high as 90% at one time.

“Prank calls increase during school holidays. We need education to curb this problem because during real emergencies, every second counts and that is why we need to screen calls made to 999 with a few keywords to see if it is a real call,” he said.

A tv series not to missed for all paramedics: Trauma

RTM2 is now showing 'Trauma' on Thursdays at 12 midnight, a tv series involving paramedics in the US. I've watched the show elsewhere, and I'd recommend it whole-heartedly to aspiring paramedics and noobs like me. The show ran for 13 episodes but then was cut since there's insufficient demand from viewers, how sad.




When is Malaysia going to do a tv series of this calibre? Please... no more Ampang Medikal.. please..

Clinical Practice at Sg Buloh?

Just received news today that we might be doing our attachment at Sg Buloh Hospital, under Dr Sabariah, who is the consultant at the A+E there. Sg Buloh Hospital is the centre for infectious diseases in country. My apologies about the picture, it was not mine. Taken from Google.

Met the Malaysian Medical Association president

I had a long chat with the Malaysian Medical Association president, Dr. David Kwang-Leng Quek today. Will be posting the details in a bit. Too busy other work. Sigh. By the way, did you guys see the stethoscope Dr Quek was using? Looks likes nothing I've ever seen.