|
Local trauma experts play role in training Sri
Lanka's first EMS instructors:
Emergency pioneers dig in
Nominathan Raman, a pioneer in emergency medical services in Sri
Lanka, arrived in Oregon earlier this month with high expectations.
Like the 10 other delegates training with local trauma experts
through an ongoing partnership with Medical Teams International, Raman
hoped to visit hospitals, training facilities and education centers; see
equipment used by first responders; and learn how regional EMS system
was established and functions.
"(The visit) will give me the opportunity to study EMS programmes in
a highly developed country," Raman said.
He plans to make the most of every experience and return home to Sri
Lanka to share the lessons he learned in the Pacific Northwest to train
emergency workers in his country. "This is a good experience for us,"
Raman said yesterday during a training exercise with Tualatin Valley
Fire & Rescue. "We are beginning our EMS system." "This is a superb
opportunity to come here and see how your system is working and how much
more structured and organised it is."
As a Sri Lankan EMS coordinator and EMT instructor, Raman has been
amazed by the "unique teamwork" he witnessed between fire district,
ambulance, dispatch, law enforcement and hospital service providers.
"That teamwork is lacking in our country," he said. "Everyone works
very closely together here. The communication isn't there for us yet."
"One day we will be an example that other countries can learn from.
We will be in a good position. We can then go and help other Asian
countries."
The Sri Lankan EMS workers' trip to the Pacific Northwest is just one
step along a long road to accomplish that goal.
Following the tsunami in December 26, 2004, that claimed the lives of
30,000 people in Sri Lanka, volunteer crews with Medical Teams
International responding to the region recognised the need for critical
emergency services.
Medical Teams International worked with the Sri Lankan Government to
establish an in-country EMS programme that began in 2006.
That same year, several Oregon and Washington first responders
travelled to Sri Lanka to train fire and rescue workers there. Those
same men, in turn, have taught hundreds of other Sri Lankan emergency
personnel to respond appropriately to disasters, traumas and other
injuries.
Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue Battalion Chief Ian Yocum and Lt. Kraig
Moisan were among the local firefighters to travel to Sri Lanka in 2006.
"At the time, they had just started an emergency service system by
implementing 1-1-0 as the universal number to call in an emergency in of
Colombo," Yocum said. "In the United States, we know who to call in an
emergency - calling 9-1-1 is ingrained in us.
"They are where we were 40 years ago."
During the more than three-week trip, Yocum and Moisan led sessions
on trauma patient assessment, CPR, first aid, EMT training and triage.
At the end of the class all of the nation's 18 fire brigades
participated in a drill where a train was lit on fire and crews needed
to locate, rescue and aid 70 "victims."
Playing a role in training the country's future EMS instructors was a
rewarding experience, Yocum said. "They will be the grandfathers of EMS
in Sri Lanka and I get to be a part of that," he said.
In the past two years, Medical Teams International has established an
EMS Educational Exchange in Sri Lanka where volunteers including
firefighters/paramedics from Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue and emergency
medicine physicians from Oregon Health & Science University, have
trained hundreds of Sri Lankan firefighters, police and hospital workers
in pre - hospital emergency care.
Beaverton Valtey Times
|
