by R.V.Rajan
In today’s world, anything can happen to anyone – age no bar. In situations of emergency, like a heart attack, or an accident, if help is provided within the first 60 minutes, considered the golden hour, a life can be saved.
This is what happened to a good friend and a popular walker Sridhar on the Beach Road in Besant Nagar recently. Thanks to Kala Balasundaram, another walker on the Beach Road, an Adyarite and founder of NGO ALERT, Sridhar got immediate medical attention.
On 9th August, early in the morning, Kala was running on the Beach Road towards Thalappakatti restaurant with a friend, Hubert, who was about 200 metres behind her doing a slow jog. Past the Cozee restaurant, she saw a small group standing around a man in his late 60s who had collapsed and was totally unconscious. Another walker was holding his head. There was blood on the road as he had hurt his head. Herself a trained first responder of ALERT, Kala got into action and stopped a walker from giving water. She put him in a recovery position as he still had a pulse.
Thankfully, the ambulance parked nearby reached in time and the paramedic started giving CPR (Cardio-pulmonary Resuscitation) after checking his pulse with an oximeter. When he asked if anyone else could administer CPR, Kala offered to help. Meanwhile, the victim’s wife who was also walking with her friends came to see what had happened and was shocked to see that it was her husband. She panicked and called her son staying in the nearby Kalakshetra Colony.
Kala could see the victim beginning to gasp for breath as he was being given CPR. She asked her friend Hubert to take over CPR, while she went to hold up the victim`s chin and head to free up his airway. Fortunately, the paramedic had an AED (Defibrillator) which he got from the van and started connecting it to the chest. He also got the ambu-bag used for pumping oxygen to the lungs. The group managed to carefully lift the victim and place him on the stretcher and then onto the ambulance.
Inside the ambulance, the paramedic connected the oxygen to him. Within a few minutes, the ambulance was on its way to the nearest hospital with Sridhar and his family.
After giving the staff and family very anxious moments for nearly a week, Sridhar has fully recovered from a near-death situation and is out of the ICU and expected back home in a few days. As the doctors in the hospital commented, “But for the timely aid provided by the good samaritans on the beach and the paramedic it would have been difficult to save the life of Sridhar.”
Apart from the availability of ALERT volunteers in Kala and her friend, it was fortunate that Sridhar`s wife was nearby to identify him. Very often we come across accident victims carrying no identity cards on their person. This leads to their family, unaware of the accident, running from pillar to post to locate their missing family member. It is for this reason I have been advocating the need for everyone (age no bar) to carry an identity card ( not just Aadhar). This card, apart from giving the name and address of the victim should also carry contact details of the victim`s near and dear ones on the reverse of the card who can be contacted in case of an emergency.
“Today, sudden cardiac arrests are increasingly becoming more prevalent with no specific age criteria. ALERT, as an NGO, was started 17 years ago with the sole vision that no life in our country should be lost just because the people do not know how to administer first aid or because people are not coming forward for the fear of police or the legal systems. A basic first aid training involves just about the time you spend watching a film. By getting trained, anyone can save a life! Be it a road traffic accident, or a sudden cardiac emergency or a choking, what could kill a victim is the inaction by the bystanders. I believe everyone is innately compassionate, the reason why we see people gathering around the victim immediately, to help. With a little bit of training, and by being an informed citizen, we could bring in a lot more smiles and joy to the victim and the families involved. Let us not wait for a personal loss to learn the simple universal protocols of First aid,” says Kala Balasundaram, Founder Trustee of the ALERT NGO.
It is time that greater awareness is created among the public about both these issues.
R.V.Rajan is a resident of Sastri Nagar and can be reached at [email protected] or 98403 92082.
Kala Balasundaram is a resident of Kasturba Nagar. ALERT is a volunteer driven NGO, that empowers a common man in case of an emergency to ensure ‘Right to Life’ a reality in India! You can visit www.alert.ngo for more information on Alert or reach out to 99440 66002.
