General Secretary, First Response Initiative of Pakistan

 

Dr. Umer Latif Uqaili is the General Secretary of First Response Initiative of Pakistan. He graduated from Dow Medical College in 2012 after completing his basic medical education and pursued his one year house-job training at Civil Hospital Karachi, a tertiary care public teaching hospital that deals with a variety of trauma cases from all over the city on a daily basis. As part of his training at Civil Hospital, he rotated for one month exclusively at the ER department where he extensively applied his knowledge of primary trauma care.  He was also sent to the ER weekly to manage specific cases whenever his Surgical or Medical Unit was on-call. Dr. Umer is registered by PMDC and is authorized to practice in Pakistan.

 

With an interest in pursuing Emergency Medicine as a career and having a deep understanding of trauma management from his early years in medical school, Dr. Umer is well aware of the problems faced by Karachi’s over-burdened population when it comes to first response. With a lack of adequate knowledge about first response in the general population to a lack of a centralized Emergency Medical Response System and population of over 20 million, Karachi faces insurmountable challenges in this field. Having worked at a government hospital, Dr. Umer is well aware of the situation on the ground and believes in working pro-actively to solve these issues. Over the last few years he has worked tirelessly under the FRIP banner and headed numerous community first response workshops which train the general population how to react to daily trauma situations. He has mobilized scores of medical students to this cause and played a key part in transforming FRIP from a group of five medical students to a registered non-governmental organization with over 60 active members. As General Secretary of FRIP, he ensures smooth daily functioning of the organization and oversees the work of all FRIP departments. Umer’s future plans include pursuing a career in Emergency Medicine after which he plans to set up a centralized Emergency Medical Response System in Karachi.

 

Umer believes that every human should know how to save a life as doctors and paramedics are not always present at the site of injury. Because of this belief, he encourages FRIP members to actively respond to real life trauma situations and to lead by example. He himself has responded to various road traffic accidents as well as plane crashes in an effort to save lives and provide support to emergency teams. His most humbling experience was when he responded to the devastating floods in interior Sindh in 2010 and witnessed firsthand such massive destruction and the lack of government machinery to deal with such disasters. It was then that he truly realized the importance of imparting high quality life saving information and teaching the general population simple maneuvers which can be the difference between life and death.  

 

Dr. Umer is certified in Basic Life Support and Advanced Cardiac Life Support by the American Heart Association and is an instructor for Primary Trauma Care Foundation as well. He strives to keep himself updated regarding the latest trauma protocols and methods. Dr. Umer believes that belonging to the educated and privileged strata of society, it is imperative that we develop a feeling of empathy towards our fellow citizens and look beyond our personal ambitions as it will only be possible then to start seeing any evidence of real positive change around us.