Labour of Love
News extracted from The
Star
Two full-timers
with St John Ambulance Malaysia relate the highs and lows of their job as
emergency medical technicians.
THE man is passionate
about his job. His eyes gleam when he speaks about it. He has been
associated with it since the age of 10. Is this a case of child labour?
It is more a labour of love. Nah Swee Sing is a supervisor with St John
Ambulance Malaysia’s (SJAM) Federal Territory branch. His involvement with
SJAM started when he joined the uniform group’s schools division.
“I was a big fan of a TV show called Emergency that featured paramedics as
some of the main characters. I wanted to be just like them. Once, I was in a
school bus and we had an accident. The ambulance arrived and just scooped up
the victims and put them in the ambulance, without giving them first aid. It
was not like what I saw on TV and I felt that they could do better,” says
Nah.
After 27 years of service in SJAM, he can certainly say things have changed.
But he is still not a paramedic, since Malaysia does not have any yet. (A
paramedic is someone who provides advanced medical care, in an emergency in
an out-of-hospital setting.)
Nah is a qualified emergency medical technician (EMT). He and SJAM colleague
Hishamudin Yacob are EMTs with basic training. The next stage is the
intermediate course and finally, the paramedic level. EMTs deal mainly with
administering cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR), bandaging, splinting
broken bones, and administration of oxygen and patient assessment.
Trained to handle emergencies: St. John Ambulance Malaysia officer
Hishamudin Yacob.
Nah and Hishamudin are both full-time employees of SJAM but
most who serve the organisation are volunteers (the FT branch has eight).
Volunteers with jobs come in after their office hours or during weekends but
some are retirees who can put in more time. They get only a token allowance,
while permanent staff have a starting salary of RM800.
The full-timers (four in total,) work in 12-hour shifts, 8am to 8pm and 8pm
to 8am. As Nah stays in Klang, he leaves home by 6.30am to beat the traffic.
He arrives at his office on Jalan Shelley, Kuala Lumpur, around 7.30am.
Nah’s first task is to check the ambulances to see if anything needs to be
topped up, replaced or cleaned. He then checks the reports from the previous
shift, so that if the police query any call SJAM has responded to, he can
provide the details. Nah then briefs his team and will do office work till a
call comes in.
“When we receive a call, we check to see if it’s from the public, the
police, fire department or from 999. We find out what kind of case it is and
get the address, landmarks to help us locate the place and the caller’s
number to verify it is not a crank call. We then head out to the scene.
“Sometimes, if we hear that a person has collapsed or is unconscious, we
first deploy our motorcycle quick-response squad which is equipped with a
defibrillator, especially if there is possibility of a jam. The victim could
have had a heart attack so time is crucial. We have a response time of 15
minutes. At the site, we stay in touch with the centre,” relates Nah.
Nah says the unit also keeps in touch with the emergency centre of Hospital
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (HUKM). In KL, SJAM is the first-response
ambulance service for the Cheras area and provides the service for HUKM.
“Once we had someone whose hand was stuck in a roller. The fire department
personnel could not extricate the hand. We had to wait for the team from
HUKM to arrive to decide if the hand needed to be amputated,” says Nah
matter-of-factly.
Risky situations
Neither Nah nor Hishamudin lets the blood and gore get to them. Hishamudin
says putting the focus on their patients’ severed limbs, cracked skulls and
exposed body parts is just par the course. Of course their adrenalin starts
pumping every time they get a call.
“When I joined 10 years ago, it was difficult at first. Even after work, my
mind kept going back to what I had seen and experienced that day. In my
first year of service, I remember this accident involving a mat rempit. He
was bleeding really badly and he held my hand tightly while he was being
treated. I couldn’t sleep for some time as I kept thinking of that scene,”
says Hishamudin.
Nah explains that every SJAM member who returns after a call is debriefed.
This helps them relate all the experiences of that incident. Nah says that
the work can be stressful but they have been trained to handle it, although
he admits they find cases involving children a bit harder to cope with.
The job is not without its dangers. Some cases involve gang fights and in
such instances, the police is called to escort the SJAM unit. As Hishamudin
says, “There is no point in us risking our own safety unnecessarily as we
can’t help anyone then.”
Once, a vagrant who was assaulted turned on Nah with a knife, but he managed
to subdue him.
Nah says the hours are long but he makes sure he spends quality time with
his wife and one-year-old baby.
On the job: St John Ambulance Malaysia
supervisor Nah Swee Sing showing some of the equipment that the SJAM
ambulance carries.
“By the time I come home it will be around 9pm but I focus
the little time at night with my wife. I work from Monday to Friday but am
on call 24 hours every day of the week and sometimes do go in on weekends if
there are not enough personnel. Weekends are exclusively for my family if
I’m not recalled. I’m lucky as my wife understands that I love my job and
does not nag me about it,” says Nah with a smile.
Hishamudin, who has three children, has an equally supportive wife. In fact,
he says, she understands too well as she has a field job with the police
department.
“It’s a bit of a juggle but I make a conscious effort to spend most of my
free time with my family. I don’t hang out with my friends much as time is
precious. It’s a choice you make with this job,” he says.
Nah notes that fitness and health are important. But without time for a
fitness regime, keeping trim comes from “running around all the time,
climbing many stairs and carrying the stretcher”, he laughs. “It’s staying
healthy that is important and I take health supplements every day for that.”
Despite the long hours and stressful work, the SJAM staff show that they not
only have healthy bodies but healthy minds and spirit too.
EMAS
Penang,
Dynamic, professional, committed to the community
