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| Wilderness Emergency Medical Services Team of Hospital Lahad Datu attending a patient with a severe Acute Mountain Sickness at Mount Kinabalu |
Sabah is a very special state, full with variety of
beautiful natural resources; from one of the most beautiful diving spots in the
world, Sipadan Island, to the highest mountain in southeast Asia; Mount
Kinabalu. While thousands of people visit Malaysia and particularly Sabah
seeking tranquility and adventures; many are not aware of the possible danger
that lies in every activity taken, be it natural dangers or otherwise.
The very first question that we as healthcare
providers, need to address is, are we prepared enough to deal with the
emergencies arises in our territory as the surrounding wilderness and the sea posses
us a great challenges in responding to the unfortunate events, extrication of
the victims as well as stabilization and transportation of the critically ill
patient.
Lahad Datu itself
has experienced it's worst condition
during the "2013 Lahad Datu Stand Off" in which the staff are not
well trained for mass casualties and disaster. Un equipped with proper
instrument and inadequate well trained personnel definitely give us a hard time
hence require mobilization of personnel from whole Sabah as well as from
Semenanjung. We definitely learn something valuable there.
But again, it is not sole disaster or emergencies that may
occur. The geographical of Sabah itself
possess significant threat. The slippery and poor condition of the road may
predispose to massive motor vehicular accident as may happen before. But again,
we need to consider a disaster caused by the natural disaster as well.
Technically, Sabah
is quite safe from event like Tsunami as it is bounded by Philippines'
group of Islands. However, in the future, it is hard for us to predict that
disaster will not occur. As for example, on 4th May 2011, a small scale earthquake with 3.3 magnitude has
been detected near the Lahad Datu with
the epicenter located 70km southwest of the town. There is a fear that we might
experience a higher magnitude earthquake and this has been proved to be true.
On 5 June 2015, an earthquake oh 6.0 magnitude has affected West Coast Sabah
particularly Ranau and surrounded area. 18 people has died in this unfortunate
event.
The wide area of Sabah with no proper specialization
in trauma or cardiac center need to be upgraded in order for us to serve the
best to the population.
We have identified all these weakness that occur in our region and noted that we need to step up our care. As all of us know, right management at the pre hospital care level will significantly affect the patient outcome. Hence, our medical personnel need to be trained to deal with all kind of emergencies.
Up to date, we have successfully organized a magnitude of courses related to disaster, wilderness medicine and pre hospital care for the past 3 years. Among them includes Sabah State Snakebite Management Course (2014, 2015), Sabah State Marine Envenoming and Poisoning (2015), Underwater Wilderness Course (2015), Wilderness EMS Course (2015), Sabah East Coast Disaster and Rescue Exercise 2014, Sabah Disaster and Response Exercise (2015), Mount Kinabalu EMS Response Team (2015) as well as multiple wilderness EMS preparation program including (Kawag Danum, Danum Valley).
Understanding the uniqueness of Sabah, we would like to take this opportunity to organize this Pre Hospital Care Symposium addressing the new evidence in managing trauma, Acute Coronary Syndrome, Austere Environment, Disaster and Transportation of critically ill patient at the pre hospital care setting.
Apart from that, distinguished speakers from Pusat Perubatan Universiti Malaya and Pusat Perubatan Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia will be brought to this symposium to share their experience in tertiary center. Hopefully, it will guide us to set up a first class pre hospital care facilities in our state.
Besides main symposium, our pre symposium course would be an “ultrasound and echo for the critically ill patient” and Pre Hospital Care SimGames Challenges.
The post symposium course would be Advance Wilderness EMS Course. Up to date, our hospital has been granted a privileges to do an internetworking co-operation with Penang General Hospital, St John Ambulance, Universiti Sains Malaysia and Malaysian Society on Toxinology to develop a wilderness EMS program. We truly hope that we can definitely contribute more to the society and advancement in pre hospital care services throughout this symposium.
