National Service : A death trap?
posted in - Nation, - TE Cheah |It is quite amazing that young apparently healthy children are dropping dead at National Service camps but the outcry is relatively muted. Investigations are purportedly being carried out, although many of such reports are rarely published to the general public. Moreover, not much medical explanations can be offered for such deaths without a full post mortem examination, an essential process rarely performed in Malaysia in the name of religious restrictions. So how is the Government to reassure parents when many such cases are not well explained and trainees or trainers alike are dropping like flies?
I feel that the National Service programme should be suspended pending a full and transparent investigation. Stages from recruitment, training programmes, the general conditions of training camps and the training or selection of trainers need careful scrutiny.
General medical physical examinations will probably have a low yield in identifying potential health threats and will only sap precious medical resources. It is a futile attempt at correcting the situation.
I feel the training of trainers is of paramount importance here. Perhaps they need a full intensive course on physical training including the ability to recognise potential problems. Failure to recognise early clinical warning signs might prove fatal. Selecting trainers with military backgrounds might be a miscalculation as military personnel tend to be more burly and physically superior. Carrying over such training tactics might not be appropriate for these ‘younglings’ (Star Wars adaptation 
)
Placing a doctor at each camp might be easier said than done. It would also be an absolute waste of human resource.
Another death might spell the end of this National Service programme. I have a feeling that if the situation persists and that effective solutions are not implemented, it is a future that is impending.
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March 4th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
I felt that people just over react to the series of death. I am a supporter of National Service program. I see nothing wrong but a good opportunity for our young boys and girls to experience living twith other people. It is not a Boot Camp or military style training. I would be glad to send my childeren volunterily to NS. Why? Because I had such similar experience before. It make you more mature. Parents who usually do not agree to send their children to NS are usually those over protective type. For me if you trying to grow a plant in agreen house, that plant will not servive a minute outside the greenhouse. The comment that ‘Selecting trainers with military backgrounds might be a miscalculation as military personnel tend to be more burly and physically superior’ is entirely yours based on your perception and there is no proof that it is true. We usually choose to listen to those who go against NS but refuse to listen to those who support this program especially those ex-participants. I am particularly annoyed when parents trying to see me to ask exeption for there children to go NS based on history such as dysmenorrhea, history of possible endometriosis etc. SO far I refuse to sign any of there exemption form. If you say NS is a death trap than how about motorcycle which kill thousands of people every year especially teenagers suitable for NS. Ironically, it is their parents who allow them take motorcycle withour licence, wihtout helmet etc. In this issue, it is the attitute to see this as a half full glass or half empty glass that matters.
March 4th, 2007 at 6:00 pm
Response from the Health Minister:
Reports On NS Trainees Death Overblown, Says Health Minister
March 4th, 2007 at 10:25 pm
hard to say leh sometimes. many a time, sudden death amongst youth hints at undiagnosed cardiac issues (cardiomyopathy, long QT syndrome etc) and if so may not be the fault of the NS program, other than causing the physical stress that leads to the terminal event. eventually this would happen, NS or not.
) rash, and only then was the diagnosis made. apparently they gave her grief when she tried to seek medical attention outside of camp.
My issue with this (albeit probably skewed since all i know is what i read online) is the lack of medical services if the need arise. I recall that lupus girl who was finally diagnosed when the media published her pictures with the ‘mysterious’ (classical, really. even an endo could tell
March 4th, 2007 at 11:17 pm
There was a letter to the Star today on this and the issues which I tend to agree with is that there must be accountability on the part of the NS administrators and my major concern is if there are kids who need medical attention during their stint and suffer if they do not receive appropriate medical attention in time, then someone must be held accountable.
March 4th, 2007 at 11:53 pm
As much as I would want to support the National Service programmes, parents of deceased children, children that are apparently healthy who were sent to NS, would want answers for closure. Statistics alone does not equate justice for these individuals. Similarly in airplane disasters, as rare as they come, they need a full investigation to avoid similar scenarios from recurring. Perhaps poor doctor might have a change of heart if it were to hit closer to home. As Palmdoc correctly pointed out, there has to be accountability and the causes ascertained. If not, how would any parent be assured that the next death will not be one of their own, no matter how remote the statistics may seem??!!!
March 5th, 2007 at 8:04 pm
Most parents could understand the “logic” of supporting NS, as stated by “poor doctor”, but many (incl me) really lack confidence in the way it is being managed, and hence the resistance or opposition (not to the policy per se, but its running). To promote NS, the authorities need to bridge that “confidence gap”, instead of crying in public.Tearing confuses me: Do you know something sinister that I do not know, and yet feeling hapless?!
September 3rd, 2007 at 7:21 am
Will TE Cheah’s prediction come true now that there is yet another NS death?
http://medicine.com.my/wp/?p=2539