Hurricane season is past, but the preparation for the next year is already underway. And Belizean authorities are getting help from the folks that just dealt with Hurricane Ivan. Professionals from the Louisiana National Guard and the Louisiana Department of Health are in the country conducting a four-day mass casualty training exercise. The exercise is preparing Belize's healthcare professionals and military personnel to manage disasters that involve mass casualties. Dr. Jimmy Guidry of the Louisiana State Health Office explains.
Dr. Jimmy Guidry, Louisiana State Health Office
"Ever since 9/11 in our country where we saw a large number of people killed, we have paid more attention to how you would deal with mass casualties. And much as your country here in Belize and our state in Louisiana deal with hurricanes where you might have loss of life and injuries you have to pay attention to how you save the most lives if something major occurs. The whole intent of sharing this information is how can we improve caring for patients very quickly and large number of patients which is not normally what we do. Normally we take them one at a time. This is taking them in hundreds or thousands of people that may be injured at one time and what we are sharing is how you would handle large numbers of patients if they were injured at one time. We are saying how important it is in that first of life if you are a major accident, major injury and a lot of things you would need to pay attention to, to make that the patient has their best chance of survival."
Lt. Col. Omar Pulio, Belize Defense Force
"Here in Belize we also need to start considering the possibility of how we will work and how we will respond in the event that we would have a scenario with mass casualties. They have brought some very expensive equipment; computerized mannequins which they will use to do some of the training."
The workshop will wrap up on Thursday when the participants will undergo practical training to assess what they have learnt.