PNG-US disaster exercise builds frontline medical skills
Papua New Guinean and United States personnel are training in basic emergency medical care as part of a joint disaster response exercise in Lae.
The medical training is being held at PNGDF Igam Barracks and focuses on what teams can do in the first few minutes after a person is injured.
Participants are learning how to control severe bleeding, manage airways, perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation [CPR], assess patients and prepare them for evacuation.
Medical Planner Major Heather, a US Army nurse with the Wisconsin Army National Guard's 135th Medical Company, said the training began with incident command before moving into CPR and choking response for adults, children and infants.
The participants are now learning the MARCH system, which provides a sequence for dealing with serious injuries.
It covers massive bleeding, airway, respiration, circulation and head injury, while also focusing on preventing heat loss.
The training includes the use of tourniquets and airways. Participants are also being shown how to improvise when standard medical equipment is not available.
Major Heather said the practical sessions have allowed participants to practise the skills and ask questions as they work through different emergency situations.
The next stage will focus on triage.
Patients will be assessed according to the seriousness of their injuries and placed into different priority groups. The teams will then treat the patients and prepare them for evacuation.
The training will form part of the final field exercise, where participants will work with casualties from the search-and-rescue team.
Numiman Trevor, from Engineering Battalion, Bravo Company, is taking part in the medical training for the second time.
The exercise is designed to give participants skills they can use when medical help is not immediately available.
It is also testing how PNG and US personnel work together during an emergency.
The wider disaster response exercise will continue through Friday, when participating agencies will demonstrate how they would coordinate their response to a major disaster.