One of the injured victims of the coal mine explosion being transferred to the RMAF aircraft named ‘Charlie’. — Benama photo
KUCHING: When Lt Col Dr A Saravanan boarded a Hercules C130 bound for Kuching yesterday, he already knew that he is going to be part of a mission that was never done before.
The Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) aviation medicine specialist was among the six specialists who were assembled to embark on a mercy flight to bring six patients from here to five specialist hospitals in the peninsula.
The patients were victims of a coal mine explosion that took place in Pantu, Sri Aman, about 130km from here last Saturday.
“I have been involved in several mercy flights before but this would be one of a kind for me,” he said when met at the RMAF Air Base here, having just arrived from the Subang RMAF Air Base.
The military transportation aircraft that he travelled in, nicknamed ‘Charlie’, was piloted by Major Nazlan Shah Zainal, who was assisted by nine other crew members.
Dr Saravanan said besides himself, the other specialists include an anaesthetist and four emergency physicians.
“From the five, four are serving with the Health Ministry, while another one who is a private practitioner, used to serve together with me at RMAF. With the advent in information technology, we managed to assemble together within a short notice,” he said.
He said this mercy mission came under the government’s National Blue Ocean Strategy involving multi-party participation of the RMAF, Health Ministry and the private medical practitioners.
To proceed with the mission, he said the aircraft had to be equipped with portable medical equipment and life support system to meet the treatment requirements of the patients, who had been placed in the Sarawak General Hospital (SGH)’s Intensive Care Unit ever since they were admitted.
“The operation had to be done delicately as not to jeopardise the condition of the patients,” he said, as he estimated the whole journey that involved four stops – Kuala Terengganu, Kota Bahru, Alor Setar and Subang – would take about nine hours.
The operation to place all the patients inside the aircraft took almost one and a half hours and shortly before 1pm, the Charlie took off for Kuala Terengganu airport, which is a two-hour flight from here.
On arrival there, an Indonesian identified as Triono, 28, will be referred to the Sultanah Nur Zahirah Hospital before the aircraft continues its journey to Kota Bahru to send another Indonesian, Mohd Zainuddin to Universiti Sains Malaysia Hospital.
The specialists will then proceed to Alor Setar to send two Koreans, Sin Chol Ju, 28, and Yang Chol Jin, 36, to the Sultanah Bahiyyah Hospital before returning to Subang airport, where 25-year-old Myanmar national, Aung Min Htut, will be sent to Kuala Lumpur Hospital and Indonesian Abdul Salam, 26, to Sungai Buloh Hospital.
Dr Saravanan said, unlike in the past mercy flights to bring patients to the nearest hospitals referred as medical evacuation or Medievac in short, their operation yesterday was a casualty evacuation (Casevac) where patients were transferred from one hospital to another. “That made the operation to be different from what I have experienced before,” he added. — Bernama