Cambodia
Medical supplies benefit EMS and 12 hospitals
October 12, 2012
Kampong Cham Province, which has a population of nearly two million people, benefited from a shipment of equipment and medical supplies from Medical Teams International to 12 regional hospitals.
The medical supplies will equip ambulances and support ambulance personnel who have recently participated in EMS training provided by MTI. The supplies will also allow staff to protect themselves during patient care.
A key benefit of the shipment is that patients will receive care from equipment that was previously unavailable. For example, improved cardiac and respiratory assessments are now available from ECG monitors and accompanying Pulse Oximeters.
Grateful recipients
After every shipment arrives and is distributed, reports are prepared of the impact and field response. The following interviews were part of the report on this shipment.
Dr. Chai, Director of the Operational District and Chamkar Leu Hospital: "I am very grateful for MTI’s donation and it will greatly benefit the patients and staff of Chamkar Leu. I'm impressed that MTI conducts humanitarian work in such a well-rounded manner by not just training and following up with refresher trainings, but also providing the needed equipment so that the personnel who have been trained are able to fully utilize their knowledge and skills to benefit their patients."
Mr. Vorng Sokveng, ambulance staff member at Chamkar Leu hospital, participated in the EMT-Basic Training that MTI conducted. He expressed that he was surprised that the training was quite in-depth and provided him the confidence and skills to treat his patients. He went on to relate a traffic accident emergency call he responded to in August, 2012 in the Chamkar Leu district.
Sokveng received the emergency call from the police. They told him that there were two motorcycles that had crashed in to each other with 2 people injured. Sokveng drove the ambulance with his assistant quickly to the scene. There, he assessed that one patient had severe facial injuries and the other had a minor injury. He used EMS techniques he learned from MTI’s class to triage the patients and control the crowd maintaining scene safety and maximizing their ability to treat the patients.
Through his training, Sokveng knew that the severely injured patient’s spine needed to be stabilized and the patient placed in a cervical collar and on to a backboard. Along with his assistant, Sokveng placed the patient in a c-collar and then on to the backboard both supplies of which were donated by MTI. They then treated the minor patient.
Sokveng was grateful that he was able to perform his skills to such an extent. He was even grateful for the gloves that were donated by MTI so that he can perform his work with little fear of being infected.
In August, 2012, MTI conducted a two day ECG monitor class to supplement the donation of the ECG monitors. This class was conducted for nine hospitals for physicians and nurses.
Dr. Sorn, Deputy Director of Santhor Referral Hospital, attended the class. His hospital has never had an ECG monitor. In the class, he was taught how to operate the ECG monitor as well as a review of ECG rhythm recognition. He mentioned that he gained significant knowledge during the class, which he will be passing on to his ER staff. He was grateful that MTI didn’t just donate equipment, but also made sure that the medical staff knew how to use it.
Of greater impact, Dr. Sorn went on to say that he is better able to fully utilize his clinical skills to diagnose patients using the ECG monitors. He recalled one patient who was brought to the emergency room unconscious. He was able to use the ECG monitor to rule out possible causes arriving at the diagnosis that the patient was suffering from a Diabetic emergency. This allowed him to quickly make a decision to transfer this patient to a higher level of care at the Provincial Hospital. The benefits to his patients are immediate.
Our Medical Supply Program
Medical Teams International helped more than 2.7 million people last year in 70 countries. Since 1986, we have mobilized shipments of medicines and medical supplies for more than 1.7 billion people all over the world. Last year, we shipped more than $133 million in medicines and supplies to 66 countries to help more than 1.8 million people.
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