Doctor's account of the night HKL staff worked tirelessly, selflessly to treat LRT train crash victims - The Star Online

PETALING JAYA: Medical workers at Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL) acted quickly to treat victims of the crash that occurred on the Kelana Jaya LRT line, despite already spending long hours caring for other patients including those with Covid-19.

The hospital’s consultant emergency physician, Dr Alzamani Mohammad Idrose gave an insider’s view on how the hospital managed to treat the victims involved in the crash that happened between the KLCC and Kampung Baru underground stations at 8.33pm on Monday (May 24).

He said the team’s three emergency specialists on duty first received three critical patients that had arrived at the same time, and five minutes after that, 12 ambulances arrived.

“Emergency department head Datuk Dr Mahathar Abd Wahab told one of them, Dr Nurul Liana, to take a deep breath and helped her calm down as he listened to the details of the incident, ” he said on Facebook on Tuesday (May 25).

Dr Alzamani then laid out plans to deal with the situation and instructed those who had worked the evening shift to stay on and help the night crew.

“I knew they were already tired and looked forward to the end of the day, but they were so strong and patient.

“None of them disagreed with the order, instead they were all eager to get to work, ” he said.

Instructions were also given to open up canvas beds at additional zones in the hospitals, and a different tag was used to differentiate the crash victims from other patients.

The team was later joined by five other specialists who came from home or their workplace to help with the situation.

“One of them was Dr Shah Jahan, who came from Hospital Sungai Buloh and told us he lives nearby, ” Dr Alzamani said.

The team was further assisted by department head Dr Mahathar and hospital director Datuk Dr Heric Corray, who got to work right away.

“Dr Mahathar quickly assessed the victims and ordered an ultrasound to be done on some of them, while Dr Heric instructed the nurses to see if there were beds available to accommodate patients as he thought about how to further ease the situation, ” he said.

Dr Alzamani said with Dr Heric’s help, the team was able to alert the relevant departments such as the radiology and surgical teams to quickly and effectively treat patients.

“While all this is happening, the team was also treating other patients with and without Covid-19, ” he said.

Instructions to stand down were given at the accident site at around 11.35pm, and by midnight, Dr Alzamani said the team was treating 67 patients, out of whom six were critical, 19 partially critical and 42 others were non-critical.

Dr Alzamani said the nursing team was able to provide beds to all those that had to be warded that night, adding that all patients had their temperatures scanned and those that had to be admitted were also screened for Covid-19.

“By 1am, all patients were assessed and had treatment plans and Dr Mahathar finally ordered us to stand down at 1.38am, ” he said.

Dr Alzamani said while the team scrambled to treat the LRT crash victims, the same attention was given to Covid-19 patients, two who were put on ventilators that night.

“Disasters can strike at any time, even in a pandemic and further complicate matters, but we can bridge any gap if we put our energy in it, ” he said.

The team’s effort was commended by Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah who shared the team’s efforts on his Facebook page.

“May Almighty Allah ease all your life-saving efforts in managing emergencies and disasters, ” he said.

The team also received praise from Malaysians who thanked them for their dedication.