Sigh....

I read this post on Facebook when someone shared it and felt the need to share it here. It's sad to read about incidents such as this one, and also disappointing (that's a rather mild adjective to use in fact) to note how help which you would expect to be available almost immediately, was just not available until it was too late. Why does it always require lives lost before people realise that nothing should be taken for granted, discounted or overlooked when organising such events?

The note below was written by a participant of the marathon, Toh Yit Ming

A Tragic Incident at Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2010Share. Today at 1:55pm



I would like to share a tragic incident that happened at Standard Chartered KL Marathon today…


When i was running my final 2 km on the 10km… as i was running along the road in front of Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur, i saw a guy was sitting on the road side then soon enough he collapsed…

this incident attracted my attention as a guy(a training doctor, named Irkhan) that was trying to help him was shouting for medic..


as i was a trained EFR, i ran over to see what is happening.. (it was around 1 hour into the race for 10km runners)

i got to know that the guy (named Lim) has collapsed and was having seizure.. we tried to place him in recovery position… he was breathing very heavily and shortly and he was also biting his teeth very very hard… i was afraid that he will hurt himself (with either biting his own tongue or he closed up his airway).. so i tried to open up his jaw and tried to communicate wif him to have him relax and breath easily.. he then slowed down his breathing and taking deeper breath…


another lady (lady A) came to help and constantly monitor on his pulse… and Dr. Visva (was another participant in the run) came over to help…

Then suddenly, his pulse was gone… then we lied him flat and started on CPR procedures… we constantly check on his pulse to check whether his pulse has come back.. we did chest compression and also mouth-to-mouth breathing to Lim…


as we were doing the CPR procedures, we did not sight medic anywhere.. and we tried to shout as loud as possible for medic…

After awhile into the CPR procedures, "lady A" said that she could feel his pulse but was very weak.. then we stopped the CPR procedures to see whether he regain consciousness or not…


After i stopped the chest compression on Lim, i started shouting for medic services again with the hope that a medic services is nearby and heard us.. but unfortunately not… we only sighted 3 DBKL Officers(with big motorcycles) just stood by the road side and just stare… the did not come over to help or to check out what happened… (it was around 10 minutes that Lim collapse and had seizure)…

after a moment, Lim loose his pulse again.. we started CPR procedures again.. we still did not sight an ambulance or any EMS(Emergency Medical Services) around… after approximately 30 compression, Lim regained his pulse but was very very weak.. and yet.. there was still no ambulance or EMS sighted… and DBKL officers still stood there and did not came over to help… so I informed a passer by to run to the officers to tell them to call for an EMS soonest possible...

after we performed CPR procedures on Lim for the the third time, finally a St. John ambulance came after around 15 - 20 minutes after Lim collapsed…

we let the EMS officers to take over the CPR and First Aid… Dr. Visva asked whether do they have the AED(Automated External Defibrillator)… one of the person from the EMS said that they do not have it.. then I asked whether do they have a face mask with pump.. they also did not have it there… THEY PRACTICALLY HAVE NOTHING IN THE AMBULANCE!!!!!!!! -.-"

EMS took him and speed their way to HKL…

we were later informed that the Response time for EMS is 3 minutes but it took them almost 20 minutes to arrive… and later.. as I was reading through the Runners Guide that was provided in our running kit…


There is a statement (at page 15) that states that "Medical Assistance - Medical Aid is available every 4km and at the Finish Area. Due to runner's physical condition, Medical Officials are authorized to stop runners and remove their timing chip"…

every 4KM MY ROYAL A*S.. I did not see any first aider, ambulance or any sort of medical officials along my 10km route… and if 4km was true.. it definitely will not take them SO LONG to arrive...

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I got a call from Dr. Visva a moment ago.. he went to HKL to check out the condition of Lim and he informed me that Lim have passed away on his arrival to the hospital… T__T

Lim is only into his 20's and was running the 10KM distance…

P/s: please share this note to as many people as possible.. we will hope to create awareness on the inefficiency of EMS, DBKL officers and organiser of standard chartered KL Marathon 2010...

we also want to create an awareness that this kind of inefficiency have caused a life of a young man...


we will hope that the marathon organisers will take responsibility and make EMS a top priority in their planning

Interesting

Chanced upon this when I went into Yahoo!

A Halo Over Moscow
by Mike Krumboltz

And you thought rainbows were cool. A few days ago, a mysterious cloud shaped like a halo appeared over Moscow, and the buzz has yet to break.

We're the first to admit that a photograph of the heavenly cloud appears to be photoshopped. It's just so...perfect. But meterologists have spoken up and said the cloud wasn't digitally altered. However, it wasn't exactly what it appeared to be, either.

When the cloud initially formed, some UFO enthusiasts declared it to be a "true mystery." Some even compared it to the giant spaceship hovering over Earth in the movie "Independence Day." Reality quickly dashed any predictions of an alien invasion. An article from the Daily Mail explains that the "luminous ring-shaped cloud" was simply an optical effect.

An official spokesperson for Moscow's weather department said, "Several fronts have been passing through Moscow recently, there was an intrusion of the Arctic air too, the sun was shining from the west — this is how the effect was produced."

The cloud loomed last week, but the searches are still soaring. Lookups on "halo cloud" and "moscow cloud" are both booming, and a video clip has garnered hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube. You can check it out for yourself below...

'Spidey' succeeds after 3rd attempt...

and gets fined RM2000 for his achievement. Did other countries fine him when he conquered their tallest landmark?

Food or your life?

I read this in the news today.

When a hawker and his two customers saw a car heading at full speed towards their stall, their first instinct was not only to save themselves but also the bowls of laksa that they were eating, reported Kosmo!.

A Proton Iswara crashed into the stall after colliding with a Nissan Sentra at the junction of Kampung Guar Jentik, Beseri, near Padang Besar, on Sunday.

In the 1.30pm incident, hawker Dahli Saad, 36, was making a bowl of iced shavings while the two customers were eating laksa.

“I heard a loud bang and saw a car spinning towards my stall.

“Without thinking, I screamed and ran, carrying with me the ladle I was using. My two customers also ran for their lives, taking with them the bowls of laksa and drinks that they were having,” he said.

Tainted food, this time in Japan

Tainted sausage, pizza
Sun, Oct 26, 2008
AFP

TOKYO - JAPAN'S second largest meat processor Itoham Foods Inc has begun recalling more than two million packs of sausage and pizza products possibly containing toxic chemicals, a company spokesman said on Sunday.

The company admitted on late Saturday that a total of 2.67 million packs produced and sold last month in the country could be tainted with toxic cyanogen compounds exceeding the government's health safety standards.

At a news conference, Itoham senior managing director Shinichi Yamada apologised for the possible contamination and a delay in its announcement of the case.

'Our crisis management was insufficient. We would like to deeply apologise to our customers,' Mr Yamada said, adding that the company, however, has so far received no reports of health problems.

Mr Itoham found the toxic substances in water from wells at its factory in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo. It used the water for production of the packs.

Japan has been on alert after a series of health scares involving food, mostly made in China.

Earlier this month a woman fell sick after eating frozen green beans imported from China, which were found to contain thousands of times the permissible level of pesticide residue.

On Friday, Japan's Nissin Food Products Co said it was recalling half a million cups of instant noodles over fears of insecticide contamination in the latest food safety scare to rock the country's consumers. -- AFP

New curriculum to make learning fun and rewarding

This is an excerpt from today's news. Another attempt at righting the education system here. In theory, it sounds good. I shan't say more.

Providing an enjoyable and rewarding learning experience for pupils -- that’s the aim of the new curriculum in primary schools to be introduced in 2010....

Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said on Thursday that a new curriculum would make learning more holistic and less examination-oriented.

Malaysian Examinations Syn- dicate (MES) director Dr Salbiah Ismail said the aim of having school-based assessment was to focus on the development of the individual as a whole.

“We want to be able to tell parents about their children’s achievements instead of the current emphasis on scoring As in centralised examinations,” she said.

She said pupils would be assessed using several approaches, including psychometric tests as well as achievement in extra-curricular activities and sports.

The full article can be found here.

Appalling revelation

I just read this.

BEIJING - While China grapples with its latest tainted food crisis, the political elite are served the choicest, safest delicacies. They get hormone-free beef from the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, organic tea from the foothills of Tibet and rice watered by melted mountain snow.

Read the entire Associated Press article here.

Petrol price reduced

Effective today, petrol price in Malaysia is reduced by 10 sen to RM2.45. Global oil prices have dropped but the financial crisis, especially in the US, is not helping. In August petrol price was reduced to RM2.55 from RM2.70. RM2.70 was the price which caused an uproar as it was a 40% increase from the old price.

While this price drop helps a little, the global financial situation is worrying. Big names like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers and AIG are hogging the limelight for the wrong reasons. The billions involved in bailouts is heating up the US Presidential campaign. The local setups of AIG and AIA have sent letters to policyholders assuring them of their stability within the local context but I think they serve little to allay fears.

Meanwhile in the Malaysian backyard, the political dramas continue. While opposition state assmblyman Teresa Kok and the senior journalist have been released, blogger RPK is now sentenced to two years in the infamous Kamunting Prison under the Internal Security Act, which has been much debated for years and a contributing reason for the recent resignation of the Law Minister who faced a brick wall in pushing for law and judicial reforms. Anwar also continues to be in the news with continued 'he said, she said' regarding the forming of a new government and his alleged sodomy trial.

China despite its stellar performance in the recent Beijing Olympics has captured global attention now with its tainted milk scandal. China officials who kept the problem under wraps since December last year has caused the death of four babies and stricken 53,000 others - staggering figures....

Last week, a pretty and smart 16-year-old girl was found murdered and burnt after being kidnapped. The kidnappers demanded and received ransom money after they killed her.

So in the light of all these bad news, the 10 sen reduction in petrol price is not much to shout about.

RPK, Teresa Kok and journalist detained under ISA

Prominent alternative political news blogger and editor of Malaysia Today, Raja Petra Kamaruddin or RPK is once again detained, under ISA. Opposition leader Teresa Kok from DAP (opposition political party) and the Sin Chew Daily journalist who reported on Bukit Bendera Ahmad Ismail's racial remark (that Chinese are 'squatters' in Malaysia) have also been detained under ISA yesterday.

The political dramas have yet to cease since the March 8 general elections.... All I want to say is that Malaysians are not happy folk right now where this is concerned. All bloggers are being watched for what they post in their blogs, especially when it comes to political news and comments.