Emergency 'Gaining the information through action'

Fortunately, Junko Nara, Founder and President of Sky Business, Co. Ltd., has been recovering from acute gallstone pancreatitis. It's a very good news! She still needs to be hospitalized for another week, but everything is going very well.

To prevent from Covid-19, we are not allowed to visit her room at the hospital, but I talked to her over the phone everyday. Junko was very lucky because her physicians, nurses, and other medical staff members are very professional and compassionate.

Also, she was very lucky because she was with me when she suddenly suffered from the disease. I could immediately call 911 via my smartphone. If I were not there, the worst scenario might have happened.... She could not call the ambulance on her own and lost her life.

By the way, Japan has a wonderful medical system. Regardless of social-economic status, any Japanese people can have access to medical services 24/365 thanks to the universal insurance system. transportation of patients by ambulance is free. Some countries in the world charge the patients when they call the ambulance.

By the way, when Junko suddenly came down with serious illness, I was very shocked. However, as an NDM (Naturalistic Decision Making) researcher, I was looking for the best course of my action and observing medical staff members. I noticed that strict manual hindered paramedics to take immediate and right action.

For instance, 10 minutes after my call of 911, three emergency medical technicians came to my home. They asked Junko about her date of birth, medical history, medicine she takes everyday, etc. They also used the devices to take her body temperature and blood pressure on the spot.

However, due to severe pain, Junko could not talk to them. When I tried to explain about her to the emergency medical technicians, one of them refused me to answer their question. They said they need to gain the information from her directly. Another 10 minutes later, they finally took her to the ambulance and went to the hospital.

We went to a local hospital near our home, but we had to move to other big hospital because the local hospital did not have enough facility to examine her condition. we stayed at the local hospital for nearly two hours and moved to the big hospital. Luckily, Junko did not have to have a surgery, but she suffered from her pain for several hours.

Two days later, Junko could alleviate her pain and talk to me over the phone. I told her I wondered why the emergency medical technicians did not take her to the hospital immediately rather than gaining her personal information. They could learn about her date of birth from me or from her ID. They also could take her body temperature and blood pressure during transportation.

The priority was to alleviate her pain first. In fact, the death rate of acute gallstone pancreatitis in Japan is over 20 percent. This is much higher percentage of the death rate of Covid-19! From this happening, I truly felt I still work hard to pervade NDM in Japan.