Sri Lanka was able to launch the nation's first national emergency service—equivalent to our 911 or Britain's 999.
"In a gesture of goodwill and neighborliness, Indian officials transferred 88 ambulances to Sri Lanka counterparts back in 2016.
Now, ten years on, this gift has turned out to be a lifesaving one for 1.5 million Sri Lankans who have ridden and received urgent care in the back of those ambulances and the ones added to the fleet in the following years.
At the time, Prime Minister Narendra Modi handed over the ambulances and Sri Lanka was able to launch the nation’s first national emergency service—equivalent to our 911 or Britain’s 999.
“Today, the fleet size of ambulances has grown to 322. It is used to provide free emergency transportation services to the whole country day and night,” Sri Lankan Minister of Health and Media Nalinda Jayatissa told Modi in a communication last Saturday.
Jayatissa said that national statistics report that 2.44 million people have received care in these ambulances for things like cardiac arrest, stroke, and road accidents. 65% of these were in the “golden hour” where medical care within a few minutes can make the difference between life and death immediately.
“That is nearly 1.5 million lives saved up to now due to your generosity, and continues to save lives in Sri Lanka,” Jayatissa said.
Sri Lanka ranks well above other South Asian countries in the Human Development Index with an index score of 0.750, and out of 142 countries surveyed by the World Economic Forum, Sri Lanka cracked the top-third in terms of health industry. That was in 2011, before the ambulance donations arrived.
More modern estimates keep Sri Lanka ahead of other South Asian economies for health industry development, and the island has eradicated several infectious diseases ahead of established targets. Its life expectancy of 75.5 years at birth is 10% higher than the world average, and the country is ranked number 5 on the World Giving Index which ranks charitable behavior and gestures among the population."
The firefighting community in Idaho suffered a devastating loss last night. While courageously responding to a reported wildfire, first responders were ambushed by a gunman—two firefighters tragically lost their lives, and nine others were injured. Authorities believe the fire was deliberately set to lure these heroes into harm’s way.
The fallen and wounded were members of the Coeur d’Alene Fire Department & Kootenai County—dedicated public servants who answered the call, only to face unimaginable violence.
As someone who has worked alongside first responders daily & holds family and friends in this world, this hits especially hard.
In a world that often feels unrecognizable, may we hold tighter to our humanity. Be kind. Be vigilant. And never forget the ones who run toward danger so the rest of us can be safe. 💛❤️💛❤️
Canada's emergency preparedness minister says Canadian military personnel, their equipment and another 250 firefighters stand "ready to supp
Canada's emergency preparedness minister says Canadian military personnel, their equipment and another 250 firefighters stand "ready to support our American neighbours" as wildfires devastate parts of Southern California.
Harjit Sajjan says in a social media post that "Team Canada, with Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta, is ready to deploy 250 firefighters, aircraft equipment, and other resources as early as" Thursday night.
Sajjan's pledge comes as the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre said Thursday that the U.S. National Interagency Fire Centre asked for two of its CL-415 Skimmer Airtankers to join the fight against the fires.
"The request is being actioned but the delivery timeline is currently unavailable," the agency said in an email to The Canadian Press. "We are also proactively working to identify potential resource availability, should more requests come in.
As a former 911 Operator/Emergency Medical Dispatcher, I can attest that so many people delay getting assistance for one simple reason: THEY CALL A FAMILY MEMBER. They call a family member to ask what they should do, and many times, it is the family member who calls 911, frequently from another jurisdiction, and sometimes even from another state.
They do indeed! It's actually something that is accounted for in emergency planning (or at least should be accounted for). When people get some sort of warning about danger, their first action is almost always to go look/investigate. It's something you have to account for when you, say, set off a tornado siren because people are NOT going to immediately go to a shelter, they're gonna go stand on the porch. So do you want them on the porch, or do you want them in their livingroom?
Humans just naturally want more information, and we default towards people we know and trust, rather than a faceless person on the other end of the phone.
Also, now that I'm thinking about it, I'm curious if calling 911 vs. calling someone else is at all an age related thing. And the reason I wonder that is that I think we forget just how NEW a nationwide 911 system is. Like. If you were born before 2000, you spent at least some time, if not a lot of time, in a world where 911 was not ubiquitous. I forget the exact numbers/years, but we technically still don't have full 911 coverage in the US. We have ALMOST full coverage, but not quite. In the 90s I think it was around 90%, the 80s...maybe 60%ish if I'm remembering correctly? And that's not even touching on urban vs. rural effectiveness of 911. But an age specific study on the matter could be interesting, I think.
