What Emergency Services?
When you arrive at an emergency scene one hour from the time of call, it’s no longer to rescue; it’s to collect.
Joe Najib
Only a week ago I posted an update criticising our hospitals and emergency services. Today, my extended family experienced this bad ordeal first hand, and I’ve never been more furious.
A family member suffered a heart attack at about 2am this morning at their family residence in Bandar Baru Bangi. His sister and brother-in-law, around for the Raya holidays, both of them qualified doctors practicing in the United States, were with him when it happened. They attempted all the standard resuscitation measures and procedures, from CPR to even wanting to insert a tube into his throat to unblock his oxygen passageway, all but to no avail. While all this was being tried, another family member dialed 999 for an ambulance. A request was also made by the victim’s sister for the paramedics to bring oxygen and necessary equipment over.
The ambulance, dispatched from Kajang Hospital just 10 minutes away, took almost an hour to arrive at their home. What’s more frustrating is that when the 3 personnel arrived, they casually walked in, untied their shoelaces calmly as though they’re there for Raya visiting, and when the family members told them to hurry, they hushed the family members with a “Kak, tolong bertenang, sabar”. They walked up, with a mere stethoscope, placed it on the victim’s chest, and without any emotions: “dah takde dah.”
When you arrive at an emergency scene one hour from the time of call, it’s no longer to rescue; it’s to collect. Needless to say, this was exactly the case: he has passed on, leaving behind a sister and her husband who now has to live with the guilt knowing they could have saved their younger brother if OUR paramedics were more responsive.
If that wasn’t enough, they then told the family members to make a police report immediately at the Bandar Baru Bangi police station. My brother in-law, arriving at the station in a panic state, wanted to get the report done immediately. And how was he attended to? The officer at the counter said “boleh tolong saya habis makan dulu tak? (Can I finish eating first?)”. Unbelievable.
It took half a day for Kajang Hospital to trace the deceased’s medical records from another hospital to come up with a post mortem. Half a day. In the end, the jenazah (body) was only released at 3pm, over 12 hours after he was brought in. Prayer and burial proceedings were delayed significantly by all these inefficiencies.
I believe I will now use my extensive contacts with the media and the authorities to get to the bottom of this. Some heads are going to roll. This has to stop. Before other unfortunate souls – victims and families alike, suffer the same fate as my extended family did.
Enough is ENOUGH!
Taken from: https://www.facebook.com/joe.najib?fref=ts
