Move, Go Faster……Man Down!!

Share

Friday, 25 February, 2022

Activating First Aid

3 initial things can happen when an emergency response condition occurs, namely:

1.     People are panic and forget to make contact with the First Responder as people may not be able to see the bloody victim's condition.

2.     People see and take immediate action, only after that make contact with the first responder.

3.     People understand and immediately contact first responders, but the responder is not ready.

This article is focusing on emergency conditions due to traffic accidents.

In 2016, Foreign Policy News (FP News) made an article that thousands of people died in Jakarta due to traffic accidents, the article was accessed through Death by a Thousand Cars – Foreign Policy.

According to the Decade of Action,

a.     Road Safety Management.

b.     Safer roads and mobility.

c.      Safe vehicles.

d.     Safer road users.

e.     Posh Crash Response.

The 5th pillar, Posh Crash Response, other road users, and community surrounding play a critical role to support posh crash response.

Many people forget the important action make call 112 for emergency medical services or 119 for the police when emergencies occur.

Not all of us have first aid training to respond to a medical emergency, therefore, wrong first aid action can worsen the condition of accident victims.

Delaying call the first responder to come to the emergency response site can slow down victims from getting first aid.

Speed ​​and punctuality

Looking back at our previous article, in the event of emergency response, victims can be categorized based on the Trauma Triage and Score which can be linked at https://patient.info/doctor/trauma-triage-and-scoring

Based on these standards, victims can be categorized into:

-        Priority 1 (P1) or Triage 1 (T1): urgent care required - requires immediate life-saving intervention. Color code red.

-        P2 or T2: intermediate or urgent care required - requires significant intervention within two to four hours. Yellow color code.

-        P3 or T3: delayed treatment - requires medical treatment but this can be safely deferred. Green color code.

-        Undead is the fourth classification and is important to prevent spending limited resources on those who are outside aid. Black color code.

Each color code assigned to identify the victim also has another meaning, namely "golden time" (the time interval during which the victim's condition can survive biologically before a permanent condition occurs which causes a very rapid decline in condition) before the victim's condition becomes more severe or may die. if it exceeds the golden time.

Therefore, it is very hopeful that paramedics and other supporting parties (firefighters, Jasa Marga, or private cranes) can arrive at the location quickly and on time. Therefore it is very necessary:

1.     Contact with emergency medical (112) or police (119).

2.     Paramedics and supporters are ready.

3.     Provide access to paramedics and supporters to arrive at the scene quickly and on time.

Judging from the exposure to the conditions above and looking back at our previous articles, it is triggered a question, do we have adequate emergency response conditions? Are paramedics available or paramedics concurrently by hospital nurses. In a journal, several things make First Aid late to arrive at the scene:

1.     Preparedness of paramedics.

2.     Equipment and infrastructure readiness.

3.     Geographical conditions in Indonesia, any accident that happens outside the toll road are difficult to reach.

The journal can be downloaded from The struggle of nurses in initial trauma emergency care in challenging geographic areas of Indonesia: A phenomenology - PubMed (nih.gov).

Race against time

Indonesia is a country with challenging geographical conditions. So it is very necessary to have a strategy and arrangements that are in accordance with these geographical conditions. In 2011, University of Gadjah Mada, made a study of the health system and emergency response events (Health system and Disaster), Modul_4.2_-13Okt_2011_final.pdf (kebijakankesehatanindonesia.net).

1.     We need to rearrange, which areas/locations require paramedics for traffic accidents.

2.     Taking into account the emergency response time, in terms of distance and traffic density, paramedics can work in golden time.

3.     The readiness of paramedics and equipment.

It is better to prevent traffic accidents, but having timely emergency response capabilities is an investment.