SAF MEDICAL FACILITY IN PARIAMAN RECEIVES FIRST PATIENTS

The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) medical team attended to their first earthquake victims and emergency cases on 4 Oct at the medical facility they had set up beside Pariaman Public Hospital.

From as early as 9am, the medical team saw a steady stream of patients both in the operating theatre and in the Accident and Emergency (A & E) clinic.

Head of the medical team Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) (Dr) Mohamad Rosman Bin Othman told cyberpioneer that most of the patients sent to the operating theatre had fractures and wound infections.

"As for the A & E clinic, we had several emergency cases such as shortness of breath, chest pains and fractures. We even had a patient who was almost comatose, and we had to send him to another hospital for intensive care," he added.

Elaborating on the capabilities of the makeshift SAF medical facility set up next to Pariaman Public Hospital, which has an existing A & E department, Surgical Head of the medical team (LTC) (Dr) Colin Teo said: "There is a resuscitation bay, so when emergency cases come in, we can triage them and do minor procedures on them. Should they collapse, we can intubate and resuscitate them before transferring them to another hospital for further treatment."

In addition, an existing operating theatre in the hospital was used by the medical team to perform surgeries. The team also brought along ultrasound and digital X-rays machines.

"In supplementing what they have at the hospital, we have doubled the capacity of their existing A & E department, not just in space, or the number of casualties they can handle, but in terms of overall capability," said LTC (Dr) Teo.

The medical team, comprising two general surgeons, two orthopaedic surgeons, two anaesthetists, an A & E doctor, three general practitioners, SAF medics and seven medical volunteers from Tan Tock Seng Hospital, conducted five surgeries and attended to 19 A & E patients.

"Our cooperation with the local hospital staff has been excellent, and we hope that this will continue so that we can treat as many of the earthquake victims as possible," LTC (Dr) Teo added.

For related content, visit the SAF's Humanitarian Assistance for Sumatra Earthquake website, cyberpioneer Flickr gallery and cyberpioneerTV YouTube channel.