When you witness  an accident and stop to help the person, it is not just an act of courage and responsibility but of concern for humanity too. It is known that your  act of nobility can cause umpteen number of visits to the police station and in some cases the courts as well even if you aren’t the cause of that accident. But many aren’t aware that the law states otherwise.

The Supreme Court, in a recent ruling, reiterated the importance of immediate help for an accident victim, both on the part of the public as well as  hospitals. But along with this, it has also emphasised on an important aspect surrounding accidents — the person who takes an accident victim to any hospital need not be forced into the legal affairs that follow unless they volunteer (in the case of not causing the accident themselves) to act as an eye witness. Advocate Navkesh Batra elaborates. “Many people fear being involved in a medico-legal case and refrain from helping someone involved in an accident.

But it is the law that the person who helps the victim need not necessarily be answerable to the hospital or the law apart from assisting in the primary investigation if he /she is an eye witness. Human right is premium and with this ruling, hospitals will be bound to administer medical care and hopefully encourage more people to help someone involved in an accident.”

Ruling doesn’t change anything

While most hospitals in the City welcome this ruling, many feel that it has not changed the way they function. Metrolife spoke to some of the major hospitals in the City that have an accident and trauma care centre.

Apart from adhering to their respective procedures, these hospitals are unanimous when it comes to their claim of providing immediate medical help to any emergency especially an accident victim. Even in the occasional cases when the victim’s identification is unknown for a long time.

More often than not, they all say, the identification is procured and the family intimidated. But there has been a few isolated incidents, they say, when the hospital had to take a call on treating a victim who’s family is completely unknown.

Here, says Batra, is where the coherence of the ruling comes into question again. “What amounts to immediate medical aid? What if the person has had a severe head injury? Is the hospital going to bear the expenses of the treatment involved or are they going to pass the buck?,” he questions adding that a nationalised health care system is the need of the hour.

Need for an ethics committee

According to Dr Bushan Joseph, a neurosurgeon with the Hosmat Hospital, many small hospitals lack an ethics committee and hence shirk responsibility. “Very often, victims of road accidents die en route to a hospital because they are sent off from one place to the other due to lack of facilities or the sheer ignorance of how to handle the situation. This merry-go-round causes their lives.”

If statistics, given by top doctors in the City, on the number of Comprehensive Trauma Centres in Bangalore, is anything to go by (a mere five to eight per cent, they say), the vast difference in number is appalling. Traffic police have recorded 4929 cases of road accidents with 533 of them being fatal in 2007 alone (up to  August). This speaks for itself — the City is clearly in dire need of many more extensive trauma care centres, say doctors.

DOCTORS SAY

Metrolife interacted with four doctors from hospitals in the City that have a Comprehensive Trauma Care centre — that which can handle multiple injuries with all the facilities required, in place.

1. Dr Mabel, St John’s Hospital

The Supreme Court ruling is good and should encourage more people to help an accident victim. But it doesn’t change the way we function. Stabilising the patient and necessary treatment depending on the severity of the injury is of primary importance. The person who brings the victim to the hospital will not be forced to register his name against the patient. Instead, we (the hospital) take complete responsibility with regard to the medico-legal procedures and send a memo to the police.

We get nearly 120 accident cases everyday with 20 per cent being extreme trauma and with the current climate conditions, we do see a rise in the number on a daily basis. According to me, about 10 per cent of hospitals in Bangalore have a polytrauma centre.

St John’s Hospital helpline — 22065229/30.

2. Dr Lloyd Nazareth, Wockhardt,

Our protocol is simple. We follow the ABCD of trauma, which is — Airway, Breathing, Circulation and Preventing Disability. This is the first step in any emergency case after which the treatment is taken to the next level. We let the patient or his family take a call on whether they want to continue treatment at our hospital or move to a medical centre of their preference, but this is after the victim has been stabilised.

Wockhardt Hospitals across the City receive about five accident cases everyday. According to me, Bangalore has six to seven comprehensive trauma centres and maybe 15-16 semi-comprehensive trauma care centres.

Wockhardt Hospital helpline — 105711.

3. Dr Bushan Joseph, Neurosurgeon, Hosmat

The Supreme Court ruling is very important and must be implemented. Since we (Hosmat) specialise in trauma care, we attend nearly 15 accident cases everyday, ranging from minor injuries to extreme trauma. This number is only going to increase taking into consideration the rise in traffic density, poor infrastructure and lack of adequate number of trauma care centres. 

The City is in utter chaos and many accident victims end up losing their lives en route.
More awareness needs to be brought in with focus on the need for trauma care.
Hosmat Hospital helpline — 25593796/ 3797.

4. Dr Sharan Shivraj Patil, Chairman and Chief

Orthopaedic Surgeon, SPARSH, Narayana Health City
The ruling is an excellent legal move that helps bystanders come forward to help accident victims.

Time is of great essence during an emergency and the right move at that moment will lessen the morbidity and mortality rate. At SPARSH, it is an inherent structure to provide any accident victim with medical assistance without any discretion and irrespective of whether we can obtain his/her identification.

This, we call, ‘Resuscitation by Right’ which we have always advocated. We attend to nearly 25 patients in a month and according to me, out of the vast number of nearly 400 hospitals in the City, only four or five have a comprehensive trauma care centre.

This is a clear indication of the immediate need for more such hospitals. SPARSH helpline — 9900100088 or 1800 from any BSNL line.