There is no limit to the number of lives that could be saved if healthcare providers in every country had access to FCCS programming.

Throughout Africa, the need for improved critical care services often is overshadowed by the need for basic primary and preventive medical care.  Learning the fundamental concepts in fluid resuscitation, shock management and the treatment of life-threatening infections are paramount to any primary or emergency care practitioner.  Thanks to the SCCM, the first African Fundamental Critical Care Support (FCCS) course was held in Eritrea, in 2004. 

When a teenage girl arrived at Eritrea’s Orota Hospital cold, clammy and severely hypotensive and in a state of altered mentation from a femoral vessel injury sustained after a high-speed bicycle accident, the emergency staff was able to utilize the skills they learned in the FCCS course to save her life.  Thanks to lessons learned during the FCCS course in effective triage, aggressive fluid use and quick surgical response, the girl survived her injuries, said Amaresh Zerai, head nurse in the hospital’s ICU.

The skills learned during the FCCS course dramatically improved the team’s confidence level and increased the speed of teamwork, said Dr. Haile Mezghebe, the SCCM member who served as the course liaison to the Eritrea Ministry of Health.

Dr. Berhane Zecarius, and emergency department physician at Orota, said he now is comfortable reading electrocardiograms and is able to detect more subtle changes.  The skills he learned during the FCCS course also help him recognize and treat acute cardiac problems better.  Knowledge about shock gained during the FCCS course has saved the lives of patients that would have been considered unlikely to live before the team took the course.  The training also provide the staff at Orota with the skills to operate the modern ventilators and monitors effectively, which has sat unused for months.