Beefed-up medical kits and facilities will raise soldiers' chances of surviving battlefield injuries
By
Jermyn Chow
SAF Medical Corp gave a preview of its latest gadgets and showcases its combat surgery system. -- ST PHOTO: TERENCE TAN
A MAJOR revamp of the Singapore Armed Forces' (SAF) medical corps has raised the odds of soldiers surviving battlefield injuries. The beefed-up medical kits, medical posts and operating theatres - to be introduced from September - will also find a use during peacetime, when they will be used in army exercises.
By April next year, all army medics in the front line will carry the improved medical kits, which will enable them to stabilise wounded soldiers and handle even complex injuries on the spot.
In a battle or exercise, the improved emergency and surgical facilities will be moved closer to the front line. It is in these mobile medical posts and operating theatres that wounded soldiers already stabilised by medics will be treated by doctors and surgeons. The result is that troops will be seen to and treated sooner.
The new equipment and training have been field-tested in SAF deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean was briefed on the developments in the medical corps yesterday.
He was shown the souped-up medical kit - a 5.5kg backpack containing better-quality field bandages, a pocket-size Automatic External Defibrillator to jump-start failing hearts, chest seals to close up lung punctures and a new tourniquet to stanch heavy bleeding, a potentially fatal problem.
The kit will also carry a personal digital assistant, or PDA, to give the medic instant access to the soldier's medical records and other critical information, such as allergies to certain drugs. With these extra gadgets, the kit will be 0.5kg heavier than the current one.
The mobile medical post, mounted on a five-tonne truck, takes about 15 minutes to set up - half the time needed to set up the portable tents used now. The medics will have disposable tools that do away with the need to sterilise every instrument and life support systems to keep the casualty alive until he can be evacuated.
The mobile operating theatres will be equipped for major surgery involving opening up the chest or internal bleeding, said Lt-Col Chua. They will be hooked up via live video links to field hospitals farther away from the battlefield, so colleagues there can monitor the procedures as well.
Going by the United States Army's experience in Afghanistan and Iraq, a wounded soldier has a 97 per cent chance of survival if he is operated on within two hours.
Read the full story in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times
