SAF field chiefs to learn new lifesaving skills

cavsg SG

Aim is to boost numbers on the ground who can help keep casualties alive, after deaths last year of three servicemen

By K.C. Vijayan

THE Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) will, from next month, train its field commanders in new life-saving skills for medical emergencies, following the deaths of three servicemen during training last year.

The move is to boost the number of staff present on the ground who can help trained medical staff keep casualties alive.

The new skills include how to control and stop haemorrhaging, how to resuscitate a heart, and providing respiratory aid to those with breathing difficulties, said Colonel Surya Kumar, the SAF's Chief Army Medical Officer, yesterday.

'The main advantage of the training is that immediate first aid can be given to a casualty by those who are there,' he told reporters after briefing grassroots leaders on the SAF's medical support system.

These additions are part of a new training package known as the combat lifesaver's course and will be introduced to new entrants at the Officer Cadet School and the School of Infantry Specialists.

The new skills are in addition to an SAF decision in December to distribute a portable gadget for reviving a collapsed heart to every combat unit. These automated external defibrillators (AED) can stun the heart back into a normal rhythm if, say, a soldier gets a heart attack during a 2.4km run.

Some 200 of these machines will be acquired, said Col Surya Kumar. The first lot was given to units conducting basic military training as the trainees were new to military service and their medical status less known.

These new measures were well received by the 200 grassroots leaders who visited the Medical Services Headquarters in Transit Road in Yishun for an inside view of the Army's medical support system.

Hosted by Associate Professor Khoo Tsai Kee, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the Defence and the National Development Ministries, the group included MPs Ong Ah Heng, Penny Low, Yeo Guat Kwang and Warren Lee, among others.

Grassroots leaders told The Straits Times they were reassured by what they had seen and would brief residents on the system.

Said businessman Chen Chuan Hua, 48, whose son recently started national service: 'I was concerned about the medical system as I had read about the three deaths in training last year.

'But after this visit, I feel the system is safe and sound.'

A national serviceman died from suffocation after having his head dunked in water during an exercise in Pulau Tekong in August.

Two others died the following month after collapsing in separate training runs of 2.4km amd 5km.

Commenting on the visit, Assoc Prof Khoo said: 'Grassroots leaders... have been reassured once more that every soldier in the SAF is well taken care of, medically speaking.'

http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/topstories/story/0,4386,234285,00.html?

Gedanken SG

That's a good start, but maybe those lessons should be passed on to everybody in the service. Even if only some of the trainees really get it, those are handy skills to pass on to anybody, which in a combat situation can be of good use. Also, they can later take these skills into civilian life - you'll never know when you need it.

About a year ago in Melbourne, I was sitting at the next table to a man who went into cardiac arrest and collapsed. A number of people there knew how to perform CPR, including a medical student, so they all jumped in to help - I was left free to call for an ambulance instead. Unfortunately the man later died in hospital, but for somebody else, CPR may have made all the difference.

wuming78 SG

x 2

and during exercises, all shud be made to practice it. buddy aid shud be emphasised.