PETALING JAYA: On the second day of Hari Raya, emergency physician Dr Paranthaman Kaneson did not expect a critical situation to unfold at the Subang Jaya Medical Centre (SJMC) where people were rushed in with serious burns and blisters.
According to Dr Paranthaman, the first patient arrived at 9am, less than an hour after the gas pipeline fire broke out at a neighbourhood in Putra Heights on April 1 at 8am.
“We didn’t know the scale of the incident until the patients came in. The first patient had quite a significant burn, more than 25%.
“Subsequently, many patients came in and some of them required intensive care management,” he said during an interview at SJMC yesterday.
According to Dr Paranthaman, all patients who were brought in by the public had superficial partial thickness burns, also known as second-degree burns.
“It is extremely painful because it comes with blisters and all. So we had a range from less than 5% up to 30% burns,” he added.
Despite the surge in patients, Dr Paranthaman said the team at SJMC managed to attend to all the burn victims within an hour and discharge those deemed fit.
SJMC nurse Nuami Michal Jone, who was working on April 1, said the first patient received by the emergency department had the most severe injuries.
“That patient had multiple burns on the body, neck, shoulder, back and lower limb. This is the most severe case we handled,” said Nuami.
“The burn victim was subsequently attended to by SJMC plastic surgeon Dr John Ranjit.”
She said nurses immediately had all hands on deck and treated patients immediately as they were in a lot of pain.
“There was no time for fear, just treat the patient,” she added.
Dr Paranthaman said there was a surge of patients at the emergency department and thankfully, the hospital was able to mobilise staff immediately.
He added that some nurses who were on leave came back to work voluntarily.
“Other nurses were told to start work early and they all came in within 30 minutes, which is extremely good,” he said.
“It is selflessness to help in order to ensure patients get the best outcome,” he added.
As the Putra Heights inferno incident approaches its two-week point, Dr Paranthaman said patients are still coming in for treatment.
The Putra Heights gas pipeline fire caused flames to shoot up to 30m high, with temperatures reaching 1,000°C, and it took eight hours to be fully extinguished.
The incident left 145 people injured, 81 houses destroyed with structural damage exceeding 40%, another 81 partially destroyed, 57 houses affected but not burned, while 218 homes were unaffected.
