You may recognise some of the images that are posted above. They are images from some of the most harrowing and disastrous industrial accidents in recent times.
The second picture depicts the severity of the deep water horizon disaster without me even having to put it into words. Deepwater Horizon was an ultra-deepwater, dynamically positioned, semi-submersible offshore drilling rig which sank on April 22, 2010, causing the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. This was the result of an explosion two days earlier where eleven crewmen died. However, seven lives were saved and taken to hospital by air ambulance.
The first picture is of the Georgia sugar refinery explosion that occurred on February 7, 2008 in Port Wentworth, Georgia, United States. Thirteen people were killed and 42 injured when a dust explosion occurred at a sugar refinery owned by Imperial Sugar.
There were 112 employees on-site at the time and over 100 of them became casualties.
The air ambulance service and their staff were indispensable in finding, treating and transporting these patients to hospital.
Many victims were placed in artificial comas because they were on life support systems, many were in critical condition. There were eight deaths.
Whilst developing this product, we discovered that the problem was by no means confined to the multi-nationals that we were developing it for. As a matter of fact, the companies that were asking us to provide the industrial cover ironically already had some of the best health and safety records in Nigeria! They were simply seeking better, more cost-effective alternatives.
So it's obvious that many Nigerian companies value their staff immensely and acknowledge the ever present risk of industrial accidents. The risks are heightened by the lack of a fully-functional land ambulance service,the huge distances to properly equipped trauma centers and deficient major incident training. These factors make air ambulance services even more essential to industry here that they are in the States!
The Facts About Industrial Safety + Accidents In Nigeria.
Most of the industrial deaths in Nigeria occur due to lack of ambulance to take accident victims to hospital during emergency. (2009)
Reacting to the rising case of accidents in some companies, the General Secretary of the National Union of Chemical, Footwear, Rubber, Leather and Non-Metallic Products Employees (NUCFRLANMPE) said, the companies valued production more than the lives of the producers. (2009)
Official statistics has show that no fewer than 3,000 industrial accidents take place in Nigeria annually. However, the unions put the number at closer to 7000 due to gross under-reporting and under-recording (2009)
The commonest accidents in their order of frequency were: falling from a height, explosion/fire, motor vehicle accidents and falling objects. Multiple injuries, head and neck trauma and drowning were the commonest cause of death at autopsy (2006)
Accidental deaths were commoner in the small-scale industries (81%) than in the large-scale industries (19%)(2006)
Almost on a daily basis, various degrees of industrial accidents are recorded, from minor to major injuries to employees (2009)
None of the 2, 913 patients admitted to the university hospital Ilorin; many victims of industrial accidents, received ANY pre-hospital care (2005)
The list of evidence that industry in Nigeria was in dire need of air ambulance cover/pre-hospital care solutions and safety training catered directly to industry was overwhelming. This is just a snap-shot. There was definitely demand and an unfilled market need at the time.
Since we launched, it has become our most successful product to date by providing cost-effective, efficient, air ambulance cover and industry-specific first aid and safety training to our clients.
We hope to see an increasing number of companies joining us to help reduce the morbidity and mortality from industrial accidents in Nigeria.
