Army benefits from mass casualty training

Personnel attached to the Guyana Defence Force benefited from a two-day Mass Casualty Scenario training course which was conducted by a visiting United States military team.

The course, which was conducted in theory and practical, concluded with a simulated demonstration at the Caribbean Aviation Maintenance Services hangar at the Ogle Aerodrome on Thursday.

According to Captain Adam Balls of the US military, the aim of the exercise was for the 26 participants to gain practical knowledge on how to respond to an accident scene and to process injured persons via triaging, with limited resources at hand. He said the trainees did a “fairly good job” when asked for an assessment of the exercise.

Personnel from the GDF and US military attend to two `casualties’ during a simulated practical demonstration.
Personnel from the GDF and US military attend to two `casualties’ during a simulated practical demonstration.

Major Frederick Deane, a medical officer with the GDF, said that the army has carried out similar exercises in the past. He said personnel within the military are capable of competently carrying out similar response measures as demonstrated in Thursday’s exercise.

The simulated exercise involved the response of the participants to the scene of an accident in which two ‘speeding minibuses’, filled with ‘passengers’ collided on a ‘City Street’. The two-part exercise included two different scenes following the accident; the first being an accident scene at which persons sustained minor injuries with one individual being ‘severely’ injured. In the second scenario, persons were said to have suffered severe injuries.  Participants coordinated with each other using hand-held radios as the injured lay on the ground, appealing for assistance and crying out in pain, as would occur in an actual situation. Quite noticeable during the demonstration was the manner in which some of the injured were picked up by the participants without being checked first to ascertain the severity and type of injuries sustained.

According to Kevin Walston, Public Affairs Officer with the visiting US team, these and other aspects of the performance of the participants were expected to be discussed during a debriefing which took place at the end of the exercise.

According to Walston, the  US Military team  in conjunction with participants from the GDF will  conduct another simulated exercise today at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri which entails responding to a hostage situation. This event will be followed by an award ceremony, bringing the curtains down on the team’s visit to these shores. (Alva Solomon)