Dr Teo does so by running, playing computer games, travelling abroad sometimes and by “not being the friendliest person after a death”. “Part of this public awareness … is basically, for want of a better term, a scare tactic,” said Dr Teo, who would rather have fewer people coming in as trauma patients in the first place. “You have to play catch up – if you don’t, and you don’t know what you’re doing, the patient tends to not do well, and that’s the challenge we have.”. While he lauded the recent move to decrease the speed limit of these devices to 10 kmh on footpaths, he noted that there were still dangers. “Essentially, you barely get much rest because after you come back (home) from a trauma, you’re in bed, they call you again to update you on the results. The TTSH-NNI Trauma is a virtual integration of all the trauma services belonging to the two institutions. Despite such demands, Dr Teo avers that there has not been a case he has missed, which goes to explain why he carries two phones. In four years, the hospital halved its mortality rates. As CNA Insider discovered, the trauma service is not only about being in the operating theatre. (I was like), ‘I don’t want this to happen, man. This is where senior psychologist Lanurse Chen comes in, like she did to help Patient C, a motorcyclist who collided with an elderly pedestrian. He also completed a Trauma Fellowship Liverpool Hospital, Sydney. Dr Chua Wei Chong is a Consultant Trauma and General Surgeon. Her blood pressure was falling – perhaps an issue with the anaesthetic, ventured another doctor. Yen Teng joined the team in 2007 as a trauma coordinator. “Before a trauma system was ever invented, the surgeon or doctor with the loudest voice or greatest power in the hospital would do whatever he needed to do first,” said Dr Teo. I shower with my phones near me. How exactly the accident transpired or even what vehicle it was, which would offer more clues as to how the doctors should proceed, was unclear. The earlier a rehabilitation specialist gets involved in a case, the sooner he can identify what trauma doctors must do to facilitate a patient's rehabilitation later, for example where to put the splint in the case of a spinal injury. “We’re like the conductor of an orchestra. “You’re going in and out,” he added. As the Director of the Surgical High Dependency Unit for the Division of Surgery in Tan Tock Seng Hospital, he manages critical care policies and patients in the Division. And they usually involve the young, who are not quick enough to avoid such collisions. “You’re changing, you’re in your car, they call you, and then you’re stuck – you’re back up again. There was an analogy he found apt here to explain why “someone needs to know a bit about everything”, enough to tell everybody what to do first. Dr Teo has seen how important it can be to fix such psychological trauma, including in young patients. “And the patients are very sick, so you don’t really have time to think of whether you’ve had dinner or used the bathroom or not. SINGAPORE: The alert came in at 9pm on a Sunday. “So if something goes wrong, it’s our fault.”. Physiotherapist Debra Ow has been working daily with him to increase his strength and balance, to speed up his recovery process. It takes more than a dislike of monotony, however, to do what he does. Author information: (1)Department of Anaesthesia, National University Hospital, Singapore. But it was not always like this at TTSH or any other hospital. “If the patient had bled into the chest after we put the chest tube in, I’d have had to change tack and quickly open the chest,” he explained. More news. Learn how we do this. TTSH-NNI Trauma attends to the largest number of trauma patients in Singapore. He did his Trauma Fellowship in McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Canada, sharing expertise and knowledge on trauma care and acute care surgery. It causes intense fear, horror, and especially helplessness in the person involved. The Trauma Unit coordinates the multidisciplinary management of polytrauma patients in the centre. The 30-year-old had been in an accident and needed stitches on her lip, among other treatments, but did not think it was necessary. He now has 10 junior doctors, which has also allowed him to look into collaborating with other hospitals whose facilities or trauma service are not at the level of TTSH, to help them manage trauma patients. “And relationship-wise, people who are around you would also have to accept that.”. “If the trauma team leader is actively involved in doing something, he loses sight of everything else,” he explained. A career at Tan Tock Seng Hospital offers you the opportunity to make a difference. “That’s the life for that week. The case that has had the most impact on him, however, is not one of success, but rather of a patient he could not save – a motorcyclist around the age of 30 who was run over by three vehicles. Everybody like my friends would, after a while, just ignore it … If you show up, you show up – that sort of thing,” he added. You may be trying to access this site from a secured browser on the server. It looks like the email address you entered is not valid. This service is not intended for persons residing in the EU. The TTSH-NNI Trauma is a virtual integration of all the trauma services belonging to the two institutions. The working hours are also a challenge. here to find out more. His special interests are in Trauma and Surgical Critical Care, and Head and Neck Surgery. But what you wouldn’t know is I actually have up to plan F, which you don’t need to know because that’s when things happen really badly. And he looks no further than his patients to find the rewards. The TTSH Trauma Training Centre, the training wing of the Trauma Centre, is a regional trauma training hub. Dr Teo Li Tserng. The ability to “change direction in the management of a patient midstream” is a must. And that means patients with multiple injuries would not have anyone prioritising the sequence of treatments they should receive. It was Dr Teo who called in Ms Chen, 38, after sensing that the patient “probably needed some support emotionally”. A 5-year profile of trauma admissions to the surgical intensive care unit of a tertiary hospital in Singapore. “I like talking to patients, I like understanding their difficulties and being, in the local colloquial context, kaypoh about how to now help them manage their lives. Click to see the gallery. It is not a simple responsibility to bear, for one thing because trauma surgeons usually know little about what exactly has happened to their patients. “If we don’t return them to the socio-economic state they started with, or at least something resembling that, then they’d be a burden on their own families and, at a bigger level, would be a burden on society because we’d have to support them,” said Dr Teo. If you are badly injured, they are the ones in the front line fighting to not only save you, but also help you get back on your feet. When he is not practising his other clinical interests in colorectal and other general surgery, he is on call for trauma cases, usually every alternate week. Given unprecedented access to TTSH’s trauma unit, CNA Insider found a team of four surgeons always starting every case “on the back foot” as he described it. While their emergency physician colleagues are the first to resuscitate and stabilise trauma patients brought to hospital, what comes next – to save the patients – is the trauma surgeon’s call. Click here to view. So he told his staff: “You’ve got two more hours before my caffeine runs out.”. Four elements appear to define an event as traumatic from a psychological point of view: It is an overwhelming event. “Most of the time, we only have collaborative history from maybe a passerby or whatever the paramedics saw,” explained Dr Teo. The disciplines involved in TTSH-NNI Trauma are: These services are represented in the Trauma Committee, which is responsible for formulating treatment policies and guidelines, and running the various trauma programmes including the trauma training courses. … So the trauma team has started giving talks on road safety, in partnership with the Traffic Police. That is the nature of trauma surgery. The Centre runs several regional trauma courses such as the Definitive Surgery for Trauma Care (DSTC) Course, the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) Course, and the Basic Emergency Sonography for Trauma (BEST) Course. In recognition of his public service, he was awarded the Public Administration Medal (Bronze) (Military) in 2011. That left an indelible impression on me because whatever we do to a patient, the downstream effect on the family – the four-year-old kid – is really large.