On Oct 31, Jalan Persiaran Surian next to the Kota Damansara MRT station was stained red with blood. Cries of pain and the loud wailing of sirens from police cars, ambulances filled the air as over two dozen injured civilians were transported to the nearby Thomson Hospital Kota Damansara (THKD).
Fortunately, all this was not the result of an actual disaster, but a coordinated disaster drill that was conducted as part of THKD’s Kota Damansara Disaster and Response Exercise (KD DiREx 2019).
The scenario involved a collision between a bus and two cars. The ‘victims’ of the disaster consisted of volunteers who were also students of Inti International University and Colleges.
Of the 27 casualties, three were in critical condition, while another three were listed as fatalities. Emergency medical treatment took place in a medic base set up at the incident site. ‘Victims’ were also brought to THKD’s emergency department for treatment.
The hospital declared a simulated Code Yellow for the duration of the exercise, which ran for one hour.
THKD conducted the disaster drill in order to be better prepared to serve the growing community of Kota Damansara in the event of a real disaster.
The disaster drill was spearheaded by THKD’s Emergency Department together with Hospital Sungai Buloh, and saw the involvement of 17 agencies and organisations.
These included the Civil Defence Force, Royal Malaysian Police, Fire and Rescue Department, Petaling Jaya City Council, Selangor State Health Department, Public Works Department, St John Ambulance of Malaysia, Malaysian Red Crescent Society, First Ambulance, MRT Corp, Rapid Bus and Inti International University and Colleges.
THKD CEO Wan Nadiah Wan Mohd Abdullah Yaakob said: “The community in Kota Damansara is growing and we have a lot of highways as well.
The risk of having a major accident is present, and I think that we want to be prepared to deal with all these issues.
“We will be having a review of the exercise ... and then we’ll be able to go through the areas that need improvement.
“I think that it is very important that all of us are able to respond in a crisis. It’s our responsibility, for the public agencies as well for the good of the public.”
KD DiREx 2019 also earned some praise from Kota Damansara assemblyman Haji Shatiri Mansor, who was on hand to witness the simulation.
Shatiri said: “There was good cooperation from every party involved, especially by the organiser THKD. There are definitely areas that could use improvement, such as the ambulance response time, because Kota Damansara is [quite congested].”
