R. Vrenken, MD/MHA,for.med.

At present Rob Vrenken works as the medical director of the municipal health services in the city of Amsterdam.
During the last 5 years in Amsterdam he combined this job with the tasks of the director of the regional Amsterdam dispatchcenter for the ambulance-services; he is the Regional Officer for Disaster Management and Medical Relief in Amsterdam and the leading forensic medical officer for the same period of time.
Preceding my Amsterdam tasks he was director of the municipal health services and ambulance-dispatch center in the city of Eindhoven.
Before my working period in Eindhoven I worked as a senior advisor in the field of mass casualty-care and disaster management in the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Hague. In the mid-eighties I was trained as a general surgeon. I completed my medical studies in Nijmegen with a special interest in orthopedics en surgery. I am MD/ltcol. in the medical troops of our royal Dutch army.
I have some experience with calamities in our country:
1. I coordinated the medical aid during the so-called "Hercules-disaster" ; plane crash at the Eindhoven airport, 1996, 34 young military men and women were killed due to a fatal error in the communication : It was unknown to the rescue-personnel that apart from the crew some 35 people from a military music-band where on board of the plane and were suffocated,
2. highway-collision in foggy conditions, 1998, 11 persons were killed; lessons were learned about the total exploration of the accident-site; one foggy part of the highway contained a pile of crashed cars and many wounded people; no one saw them until the fog disappeared and several people had died although rescuers where at hand; I was responsible for the medical aid to the victims after the recovery,
3. new years morning 2001: the Volendam disaster, 13 youngsters died from severe external and internal burn wounds in a bar that was overcrowded and contained decoration-material that was enflamed by accident; escape-routes were blocked; I managed the medical aid-process for 48 hours, including an international dispersion to burn centers for the severely wounded youngsters; lessons were learned about the effect of preventive intubation if internal burns are suspected, and the risks of loosing patients once they left the disaster scene and received first-aid (cooling) in the surrounding houses.

I am a registered medical doctor in Public Health, registered forensic doctor, master in health administration and officer in the royal Dutch army.