(COLOMBO, SRI LANKA - April 30, 2007) What if there were no ambulance services or emergency aid workers to assist with a roadside accident or a drowning child? In Sri Lanka, emergency medical services, including ambulances, are not readily available to accident victims. Thousands of people die every year because pre-hospital care is nonexistent.

To meet this critical need, Medical Teams International is partnering with the Sri Lankan Ministry of Health to implement a nationwide EMS training program for road police, health personnel and hospital staff. This groundbreaking training is laying the foundation for pre-hospital care in Sri Lanka and bringing lifesaving skills to first responders.

The three-week training conducted by Medical Teams International staff and volunteers prepares these local workers to respond to emergencies like car accidents and other traumas as well as major disasters like explosions, tsunamis and earthquakes. Pre-hospital care focuses on safe ambulance transport, CPR skills, and fracture and neck stabilization to reduce the risk of injury on the way to the hospital.

Recently, Medical Teams International conducted a mock train wreck at a major intersection in Colombo to demonstrate the new skills of Sri Lanka's EMS personnel. The staged accident included more than 50 patients with mock injuries. It took 22 minutes for the emergency medical technicians to triage, treat and transport all of the patients to the hospital. The staged event was a collaboration with the Railway Commission and the Fire Brigade Municipality of Colombo.

"The ideas for an EMS training program already existed in Sri Lanka, and now we are helping to implement those ideas through capacity building and training," says Carol Knobloch, the Sri Lanka country director for Medical Teams International.

Since 2006, Medical Teams International has trained 100 EMS workers to respond to multiple types of disasters and traumas using internationally accepted standards.

The organization has been helping people rebuild their lives in Sri Lanka since the 2004 tsunami, by constructing temporary shelters, building houses and providing mobile medical and dental clinics in the eastern and northern provinces. Medical Teams International continues to oversee long-term development rehabilitation in the country through hospital/clinic renovation and programs focused on community health services.