MANILA, Philippines—A terrorist bomb is unleashed in a populated area, an urban center. There are many casualties. Chaos ensues.
“We call that a mass casualty incident,” said Dr. Ted T. Esguerra of the Philippine Coast Guard medical division. “When we did that exercise, it was like the real thing. There was an ambulance wailing, people were coming down to see what was going on. The injuries seemed like the real thing.”
The exercise he was describing was part of the First Specialized Emergency Medical Technician Basic Course, a five-week undertaking recently conducted in Metro Manila and other parts of the country.
“We taught course participants how to come up with an incident command system so that there will be an easy flow of the movement of the casualties to the designated area,” said Esguerra, course director and an expedition and wilderness medical specialist.
He added: “They must know how to analyze the movement of the crowd because the situation will be chaotic, with things going haywire. Where will you bring the burn victims? You must bring them to a hospital which has a burn unit like the Philippine General Hospital or the Makati Medical Center.”
“If there is a trauma case, if we can bring him to the hospital in 10 minutes, ang galing na yan (that’s fine). So that’s our objective,” he stressed.
The course brought together 50 emergency rescue technicians, including professionals like doctors and nurses. Of the five women students, two have climbed Mt. Everest: Noelle Wenceslao and Janet Belarmino. Esguerra himself served as official physician of the Mt. Everest Philippine expeditions.
Other participants were rescue team members from the local governments of Quezon City, Mandaluyong and Pasay, the Philippine National Police, Philippine Air Force, the Coast Guard, and NGOs (nongovernment organizations). They were joined by 13 members from the Philippine International Dragon boat team.
The project was sponsored by the Coast Guard, the Philippine Association of EMS (emergency medical service) personnel, the Mt. Everest team, SALT (Saving Lives Together), Knightsbridge International and LDS Seagull International.
“The course is unique because we incorporated wilderness rescue, tactical combat casualty care, air medical evacuation handling of casualties in a helicopter and a thorough diving emergency session because we have many dive spots,” Esguerra said.
“The course is 30 percent classroom work; the rest is done outdoors,” said instructor Peter “Brod Pete” P. Negrido of the American Heart Association. “The team members already have skills, but this course will upgrade their skills for they will learn new things.”
Another instructor, Vicente V. Lagunday of the University of Perpetual Help, called attention to the apparent lack of coordination among the emergency medical service teams: “They are just confined to one area. But with this program, we incorporate capacity building techniques. They will say, uy, meron pala kaming kasama (hey, we have comrades). In case of emergency, we can help.”
He pointed out that there is integration now because of the fact that they know each other.
Said Lagunday: “We are friends with Quezon City, Makati, Parañaque, Pasay. The next step is to lobby in Congress for a system. This is a start, a stepping stone to standardized operations. Ang sabi nga, kung hindi ngayon, kailan? Kung hindi tayo, sino? (As they say, if not now, when? If not us, who?) We start with Metro Manila and eventually, we will reach neighboring establishments. This is our dream.”
Copyright 2009 Philippine Daily Inquirer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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