Red Alert emergency procedure saves lives of seriously ill patients

Dr Dao Trung Hieu, deputy head of Paediatrics Hospital 1, checks a child whose chest was punctured by a steel bar after he fell from the third floor of a building (Photo: VNA)

HCM City (VNA) - The life of a five-year-old child whose chest was punctured by a steel bar after he fell from the third floor of a building was saved by doctors last week who took part in Ho Chi Minh City’s Red Alert emergency procedure.

Doctors at Thong Nhat Hospital in the city’s Tan Binh district provided emergency aid for the boy and then activated the Red Alert to ask for assistance from Paediatrics Hospital 1.

At Paediatrics Hospital 1, Dr Dao Trung Hieu, deputy head of the hospital, was alerted and immediately went to Thong Nhat Hospital to conduct the surgery.

After the surgery, the patient was brought to Paediatrics Hospital 1 for further treatment and check-up.

A cardiovascular ultrasound detected an abnormal blood clot in the centre of chest, Hieu said, adding that a second surgery was performed to remove the clot.

The boy is now recovering in the hospital’s intensive care unit.

Under the Red Alert procedure, which began in 2010 under the municipal Department of Health’s requirement, doctors in the city cooperate to save the life of patients.

In late August, the Red Alert procedure helped save the life of a patient who had suffered electric shock.

Dr Tran Van Khanh, head of the District 2 Hospital, said the patient was admitted with severe bleeding, a heart rate disorder, and a damaged liver.

Khanh initiated the Red Alert process, with the assistance from the Gia Dinh People’s Hospital.

Twenty minutes later, Gia Dinh People’s Hospital’s surgeons and other doctors arrived at District 2 Hospital to perform surgery alongside Gia Dinh’s doctors.

Without the Red Alert, the patient could have died on the way to the Gia Dinh People’s Hospital, Khanh said.

At a Red Alert rehearsal at District 11 Hospital in late August, Dr Nguyen Dinh Phu, head of 115 People’s Hospital, said the procedure was necessary in emergency conditions because the skills of doctors in the city varied.

If doctors at a hospital do not have the capacity to treat certain patients in serious health conditions, then the Red Alert process should be activated.

Tang Chi Thuong, the Health Department’s deputy head, said that it was critical to provide good first emergency aid.

Emergency ward doctors can evaluate the patient’s condition and then activate a Red Alert to seek help from doctors from another hospital.

Thuong said that a Red Alert steering board had been set up to improve implementation of the procedure.

Nguyen Tan Binh, head of the department, said that only several hospitals in the city were currently carrying out the Red Alert procedure.

In the future, the department will instruct all public and private hospitals in the city to use the Red Alert process when conditions require it./.