Emergencies do not give us much time to think but our response at that crucial moment can be fateful. This incident is an example. On seeing a student getting hit by a car while crossing the road near school, a school teacher reacted by stopping another car, loading the unconscious child into it, and requesting the driver to rush her to a nearby hospital. The well-meaning teacher however did not get into the car herself, and in panic, forgot to take down the details of the obliging driver or the car number.
Minutes later, when the girl’s parents got the news and called to know where the child had been taken, the school teacher had no answers!! After rushing form one hospital to another in a beweildered state, the parents finally located their daughter in a nearby hospital. Fortunately this strory had a happy ending: the child recovered, and most important, the Samaritan in retrospect, turned out to be a good one!
As major accidents and terror attacks are nowadays no longer confined to thriller novels or crime movies, emergencies are becoming a part of our daily lives. But are we prapered?
Last week we surveyed around 100 people at random to find out if they knew the emergency numbers to call in case of fire, or the police. Only 48% knew the numbers (for Fire call 101, for Police 100), while more than half of the responders from the educated middl class did not !! The informed ones were largely office-going men and working women.
To find out how they would respond to a medical emergency, we further enquired what they would do if someone suddenly became very sick at home or office. One of 5 (20%) said they would contact their local physician, 33% would rush to the nearest hospital and 16% to the Trauma Centre. One of 3 responders (33%) however had not thought of how they would respond and said they would decide if and when an emergency occured.
Medical emergencies come without notice, and a prompt timely repsonse can save lives. Most cities in developed countries have dedicated helpline numbers which respond promptly with trained paramedical staff and resuscitation capability, along with an ambulance for transportation to hospital.
Lucknow does not yet have an organized medical emergency helpline. The Trauma Centre (9415007710) is inundated with around 200 emergencies a day, and caters well to trauma cases that constitute 70% of them.
For transportation, a charitable ambulance service (tel 6560000) is available for Lucknowites. It has only 7 ambulances (compare with London’s 400) and comes bare of trained staff or resuscitation facilities. It can however be useful in dire need.
While both medical facilities and expectations of citizen are rising steeply, and the threat of unforseen dangers are looming large in present times, Lucknow needs to develop and sharpen a better organized response system to deal with emergencies.
As published in HT City( Hindustan Times) dated 17 July, 2011.
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