Incompetent Public Health Service? Or Exaggerated Story?

Read this in LimKitSiang blog today:

This is Zara’s terrible story of an incompetent, unprofessional and even inhumane civil service:

On the 13th of December 2006, at approx 1.30pm a road
traffic accident involving a driver driving a dark
blue proton saga and a highway road sweeper of Malay
descent, male, approx mid 20s (the road accident
victim).

The location of the accident was about 150 – 200
meters from the Batu Tiga toll booth, elite highway in
the direction towards KLIA.

I chanced upon this accident which had just happened
while on my way back to work (Ampang via KESAS).

As I approached the accident site it seemed the victim
was already dead, the driver who had knocked him down
was standing near-by and nobody dared approach to lend
assistance to the victim, almost as if this was one
time were an invasion of privacy was taboo.

I stopped my vehicle and approached, upon examining
the accident victim I found him to be still alive but
heavily concussed, his pupils were completely dilated.

Suddenly the victim grabbed my hand and tried with all
his might to raise himself to his feet. I tried to
calm him and asked by-standers if an ambulance had
been called. I was told it had not.

In a firm tone I told the driver of the car that hit
the victim to call for an ambulance. He dialed 999, it
rang until it could not ring anymore. He rang again,
again it was not answered, he rang again and passed
the phone to me. Finally someone answered (a man).

I informed him that I am reporting an accident a few
hundred meters away from the Batu Tiga Toll in the
direction of KLIA. He asked me my phone number and my
name and which hospital was nearest. I gave the info
and added that the nearest hospital to deal with this
kind of trauma is probably Klang.

At 1.57pm I received a call from 03 3371 7989 the
ambulance control center at Klang Hospital. The guy in
charge of the control center asked to speak to me and
asked for the location of the accident, which I gave
adding that the victim was dying and that this was an
extreme emergency.

The guy manning the control center did not know my
location, so I repeated it clearly and concisely. It
seemed that he needed to understand it for himself
otherwise he could not pass on the information and
dispatch the ambulance. It was a frustrating
conversation. I repeated the details of my location
and he asked me if I was sure that Klang was the
nearest hospital. I repeated firmly, yes!

I told him the injuries of the victim hoping he would
feel the urgency, instead he wanted to know whether
“dia jatuh motor ke…?” I told him politely that his
question is completely irrelevant and hurry up with
the ambulance plus I have to hang up and attend to the
victim.

I called back at 2.06pm to ask if an ambulance had
been dispatched. The same guy told me “belum”. He
asked me the same questions…I answered them.

I warned him that the next time I make a call will be
to the Menteri Besar’s office to complain about his
shoddy professionalism, so he’d better send out that
ambulance immediately. I called Salamat Dollah at
2.08pm and he helped call Klang Hospital on my behalf
to request they send out an ambulance immediately.

I waited and called the emergency control center at
Klang Hospital at 2.36pm and asked the same guy if an
ambulance had been dispatched, same answer, “belum”.

He requested me to repeat the accident location again
which I did. This time I told him that he need not
understand it just write it down and give it to the
ambulance driver along with my hp number.

I waited again. The victim was rolling in pain on the
road, his head had a gash about 10cm long on the back
of his head, the skin on his head was beginning to
peel off. His left leg was completely broken and
hanging by the flesh but the main artery was not
severed, he was not loosing much blood. His workmate
was cradling him in his arms and asking him to
mengucap kalimah syahadah.

I tried to stop further damage to his left leg by
securing it to his right leg. I told the few people
around that he is going to die if we don’t get him to
hospital. Everyone was reluctant to put him in there
car, all kinds of excuses… ada barang, kotor la,
berdarah la… Meanwhile the victim was grabbing on to
my clothes and body in pain, unable to talk possibly
due to his head injury.

Finally the driver who knocked him down allowed us to
use his car to send the victim to the hospital. But he
was too shaken-up to drive. Another gentleman offered
to drive but did not know how to exit the Elite
highway to get towards Klang Hospital. I asked him to
follow me and so we drove off as fast as we could head
towards USJ - Federal Highway – Klang. We had to go
through so many toll gates, some paying, some after
explaining briefly, let us through.

On the Federal Highway despite our attempts to notify
motorist that we were in a state of emergency many
blocked our path and only relented to give way when I
practically sat on my car horn.

We arrived in Klang and I called the emergency control
center guy for directions to the hospital. I was by
this time quite distressed and pronounced the name of
the hospital wrongly. The guy in the control center
told me there was no such hospital in Klang, so I said
to him. “Have you sent out an ambulance to the Batu
Tiga toll accident site ? No, right? So since you
cannot understand were the accident is we are sending
the victim to you. This is an emergency can you give
me directions to your hospital or not??”

Finally he did.

When we arrived at Klang Hospital I had a hard time
looking for the staff to bring a trolley to remove the
victim from the car. I asked for assistance from two
nurses but did not receive a response. I took a
trolley and pushed it to the car, suddenly a hospital
aide appeared, then another, as we tried to remove the
victims body from the car, it was then that the
co-worker who had been cradling the victim in the car
said that he has stopped breathing.

The hospital aides rushed the victim into the A&E room
and I followed, as he was wheeled in there was no
immediate response from the doctors, it was obvious
this young man with his whole life ahead of him had
died in the car on the way to the hospital.

I was so angry, my words were simple –
“Kecuaian pihak hospital menghantar ambulance membantu
mangsa ini telah mengecewakan rakyat.”

The aide asked me to be calm. How could any human
being be calm when face with such stupidity and total
lack of regard for human life? The aide showed me the
IC and asked me to confirm if this was the victim. I
confirmed. I briefly saw the name Mohd Yusry and his
age was somewhere in his mid- twenties.

As I walked away from the A&E room in disgust I saw
the control center. A guy was sitting in it with a
female nurse looking at a computer (very close and
comfy).

I approached him and asked if he was the person who
took my calls, he knew my name and I asked him for
his, he declined. I asked him why he did not dispatch
an ambulance to which he replied something brash.

I asked him if he was happy as the victim was
unnecessarily dead and that I am going to ensure that
his lackadaisical attitude to his job was brought to
the public attention. I asked him for his name again
along with the nurse who was sitting next to him
“playing” with the computer. He refused to give it to
me. Feeling very frustrated I called Salamat Dollah
and informed him that regretfully the road accident
victim a young Malay man had died in the car on the
way to the hospital and that no ambulance had been
dispatched.

This is not the first time I have called for an
ambulance and used the 999 services. Every time I have
called for an ambulance it has never arrived, never.
Why??

This is the first road accident victim I have helped
who has actually died. Everyone else I have helped
before this has survived.

THE ISSUES THAT NEED TO BE ADDRESSED ARE:

1) The strategic location of a free government
hospital able to deal with serious road accident
trauma in Shah Alam (densly populated area with much
traffic activity).

and/or

1.1) Emergency response centers created where the
Balai Bomba have special ambulances and police squad
cars for dispatching purposes only to accident /
incident locations and to the nearest hospital / balai
police (ambulances need NOT be parked permanently at
hospitals).

2) Road signs giving clear and proper directions to
hospitals (there are hardly any such signs).

3) Special Emergency Exits through toll gates. And
signs declaring their existence + a phone number to
call ahead so that they can be opened.

4) The name of the Highways, Elite, Kesas, Federal etc
clearly advertised so that road users are able to
identify their location under emergency circumstances.

5) Professionally trained personnel with various
languages who have true empathy and value the human
life, manning emergency response centers. Who
consistently answer calls on the first or second ring.

6) An emergency station located at the emergency
parking lot with a big sign above it (similar to the
car jockey service at hotels) to receive patients.
That is manned 24 hours a day, never ever left
unattended.

7) An ISO reponse time from the time you send out an
sos call to 999 you will receive the assistance you
need within 15 min.

These are my simple suggestions. Life is precious and
should be preserved above all else. Without regard for
one another what kind of country are we leaving for
our children to inherit ??

Is this yet-another-incompetent-govt-service highlighted in the media? Or is this just an exaggerated story?

I personally think that there should be two sides of the stories heard, and a thorough investigations done to reveal the truth; if there is negligence in the A&E service, by all means, sack that "dungu" receptionist! However, if this is not the truth, I wish the media will clarify this to the public, and that the businesswoman Zara should apologize to all of us -- this indirectly reflect how bad the public hospital service is, and since I am one of the KKM employees, I am indirectly affected too.

I need to know the real truth, all truth and nothing but the truth...