Troops get first aid training

FAR SOUTH / BREAKOUT, BATTLEFIELD MEDICINE

Troops get first aid training

WASSANA NANUAM

A soldier shows a pack of haemostatic granules, a coagulant used for external treatment of traumatic wounds. Troops stationed in the deep South are receiving training in modern emergency first aid.

Some of the troops stationed in the far South are being taught the emergency first aid procedures used by US forces fighting in Iraq.

Craig Kastin, of US-based company CMC Rescue Equipment, has been demonstrating emergency medical techniques to special warfare troops.

He has also been introducing the company's new medical kits and other products used by US soldiers in Iraq. They are all for sale.

He said the new products and training in emergency first aid could save lives.

One product he introduced is haemostatic granules, a coagulant used for external treatment of traumatic wounds.

''We are teaching them how to deal better with an emergency,'' he said.

It was a popular product used for stopping moderate-to-severe bleeding, he said. It cost 1,500 baht a pack.

''I bought one pack,'' said Sgt Noppadol Jaitham, of the Lop Buri-based Special Warfare Command.

''Although expensive, it is worth buying because it could save lives if we are attacked and have bleeding wounds.''

Special warfare troops are assigned to community relations work in remote villages. Sgt Noppadol said the soldiers were prime targets for insurgents.

Sgt Somkiart Sonna said some of the army's medical supplies were out of date and the rescue equipment was old. They sometimes had to improvise straps to control bleeding, he said. The unit could not afford the best emergency kits.

Lt-Col Nat Kanchanahoti, chief of the 1st Special Warfare unit's civil affairs section, said some of the medical equipment dated back to the Vietnam War.