Experiences of the Intensive Care Unit of Hospital Raja PerempuanZainab II in handling the Massive Evacuation of Critically-Ill Patients during Flood Disaster.

Abstract

In December 2014, Malaysia had suffered nationwide floods after unprecedented monsoon rains overwhelmed several parts of the country. The East Coast areas of Malaysia were especially badly affected, specifically for the state of Kelantan, whereby a total of 170,000 victims were evacuated to the evacuation centres. This was the worst flood in the last 40 years and has been referred to by the locals as ‘Bah Kuning’. As a tertiary centre for the state of Kelantan with a total number of hospital beds of 937, HRPZ II was also badly compromised during this time. The electricity supply to the main hospital building was shut-down during this period and the hospital had managed to maintain its operations hUP_(ÛT_e power from a generator which had faced the risk of being shut down if the water levels had increased further. These issues might have caused a worse impact viaa possible loss of electrical and oxygen supply and non-functional life support systems. In relation to this flood disaster, the Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Unit of HRPZ II would like to share the experiences of handling ventilated and critically ill-patients for evacuation during the massive floods in 2014 from the ICU of Hospital Raja Perempuan Zainab II to “an open stage with no facilities”. During this time, we had a total of 19 patients in our 21-bedded Intensive Care Unit. The challenge was the need to evacuate all the critically ill patients and to set-up a new ICU in a safer place immediately at the time.International Journal of Human and Health Sciences Vol. 02 No. 04 October’18. Page : 224-227