UAE hospital sees 'Code Brown'

Tawam Hospital Al Ain, in affiliation with Johns Hopkins Medicine, part of the SEHA healthcare system, announced that it had successfully conducted a simulation of Code Brown training for its staff at the hospital. The Code Brown training exercise is to manage toxic spill and exposure. These pictures show the process and detail of the exercise.
 

In the event of a large chemical spill, staff in the area is trained to contain the situation and stop the growth of the spill, if it is safe to do so, and to be alert to physical  symptoms such as coughing, burning sensations, shortness of breath and teary eyes are mostly often associated with HazMat incidents.

During the exercise, staff learns the proper procedures for isolating the area, evacuating casualties to safety, and initiating Code Brown to alert emergency response teams to arrive to the scene.

During the exercise held at Tawam Hospital, the Incident Commander instructed the CBRN (Chemical Biohazard Radiation Nuclear) team not to deal with the spill and wait for specialised local authorities to arrive.

Casualties were moved from the incident scene and provided immediate first aid.

Ahmed Malalla Al Ali, Disaster Programme Manager and Risk Manager, Tawam Hospital said: “Accidents can occur at anytime and anywhere and these practical exercises increase the preparedness level of our staff in responding to HazMat incidents. Most importantly, it helps the staff to go through the decision making process without creating unnecessary panic.”

Steven A. Matarelli, Chief Operating Officer of Tawam Hospital, “During Code Brown training, we train our staff to do a quick assessment of the danger and to minimise exposure. Their mission is to manage the spill in an effective and efficient manner and provide appropriate medical care to the casualties where needed. They escalate any emergency that they cannot handle to Code Level 2, which alerts additional emergency response teams.”

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