In the wake of the past floodings brought about by series of typhoons in the country, medical experts called for greater resilience of people and adapt in facing natural disasters.
Teofredo T. Esguerra, a flight surgeon who is an expert on emergency medical services, said that with many unpredictable natural disasters occurring in the country, there is a need to instill to the minds of the people to prepare for nature’s threats.
“Filipinos should make it like a part of their lives. They should be like Japanese who are always prepared; in fact, they have some survival kits which have already become a part of their day-to-day activities,” Esguerra said.
Esguerra, a member of the World Association of Disaster and Emergency Medicine and International Disaster Response Network, handles air medical evacuation, remote and wilderness rescue. He also conducts training – if and when needed.
In some of the trainings he conducted, he found out that there are quite a number of rescue teams who lack training and not well-equipped. “They don’t have much safety inductions. And to think of, they are performing high-end operations,” he said.
To be disaster-equipped, Esguerra suggests that rescuers be trained to follow the six S’s (security, safety, survival concepts, “sentido komon” or common sense, scientific, and systematic.) and T’s (tribal skills but technologically supported, tactical and technical, and tough yet tender).
Although there are claims that Filipinos are resilient when it comes to disasters, he said there is still a need for people to be well-prepared and that they should learn from the past disasters already.
“ People need to be smarter and develop norms of safety as well as understand the risks,” Esguerra said.
Photos courtesy of Dr. Teofredo Esguerra.
Latest posts by Henrylito Tacio (see all)
- Raising goats benefits farmers, environment - April 14, 2015
- IPCC synthesis report urges leaders to act - November 5, 2014
- Water crisis looms in Davao - June 23, 2014