JOIN USOne incident changed the life of a doctor. “I think it was life’s calling. I have been having series of accidents but have come out unscathed as I got medical attention on time. However, in this case, we were lying unattended for over four-and-a-half hours, were in panic and imagining all sorts of things like orphaning a child. So when we finally got help and we were in a hospital, for days those thoughts kept coming. My wife, who too was involved in the accident, was adamant that we do something concrete about it and forced me into it,” says Dr Subrata Das, a man who has since his accident in 1999 has come to be known as “Highway Doctor”.
It is Das and his Lifeline Foundation that have been attributed by many to have changed the face of ambulance response system, including the 108 ambulances, that are stationed across the nation for quick response.
Post accident, Dr Das and his wife, Sushmita, set out to begin a series of steps that would make accident response system in India at par with 911 in the US. Beginning as a pilot project between Ahmedabad and Surat, today it has a fleet of 40 ambulances.
“In 15 years of our existence, we have intervened in 14,842 accidents, evacuated 13,000 persons with serious head or crushed injuries, 25,000 more with relatively smaller injuries as single fracture or lacerated wound and innumerable who got first aid before being sent,” Das says.
Today, his organisation has spread its wings beyond Gujarat and has tie-ups with organisations such as Save Life in West Bengal, several others in Kerala, with satisfaction of fuelling a revolution that has helped change India’s ambulances in 27 states.
“I cannot give you figures of how many people we have been able to directly save as once we have transferred them to a hospital and searched out their relatives, we move out,” he says.
He says that over time, they realised that highways are only one part where accidents happen. Then there are industrial units, railways and ports services where accidents happen. Moreover, at times governments too fall back on corporates to pitch in during times of emergencies as floods or any other natural calamity. “Last three years, we have started to focus on industry to help them improve their emergency systems.We are working with Adanis at Mundra and Kandla Port Trust,” he added.
Das and his Vadodara-based Lifeline Foundation is now working on to increase the scope of their initiative by educating people on road safety. “Most of the Indians are used to walking on the left side of the road. We are now trying to tell them that if you do walk on the right side of the road facing the vehicles, there is a chance of you getting a fraction of second more to react just before an accident. This could prove critical. We have also been working with transporters on highways, encouraging them to use reflector stickers on their vehicles. In fact we also work with some communities, as Jains, who lose a lot of monks to accidents while traversing the roads on foot. What we are requesting them is to use such reflective stickers on their sticks,” Das says.
The other issue that Lifeline Foundation has taken up is to focus on first response in times of accidents and medical emergencies. “What do you do between the time you have called an ambulance and it arrives. Would you let a person die?” Das asks.
The facilities within the ambulances will continue to improve and so is the quality of personnel in ambulances. The foundation now wants to work on the “bystander effect” in times of medical emergencies and accidents. It is seen that more the number of people gathered at a scene of accident, lesser the chance of anyone coming forward to help.
“We are working to tell people that you need to be accountable and that there is nothing in the law that prevents you from helping others during an accident, a cardiac situation, snake bite, animal bite or dog bite,” Das says. “Today it is someone. Tomorrow it can be you. Indians are fatalists and never want to accept this and we want to change this mindset,” he says.
As part of this initiative, the younger generation of Das family and his foundation, has embarked on a new programme to make Vadodara a cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) city. Led by Shukanto Das, son of Das and Sushmita, the project began about four months ago. What prompted this postgraduate in biology to initiate the project is the fact that 4,280 of every one lakh people in India die of cardiac arrests. This is in addition to the deaths caused by several other injuries or illness.
The Das’ feel that the most vulnerable section is children – who when see a minor fall, burns, cuts or major choking situations could at times see them become life-threatening. “Sadly, not even a section of medical fraternity is taught CPR in colleges. There is a famous joke that when a patient under treatment began failing, the dentist treating rushed out shouting to please call a doctor! This must change,” he adds.
The Lifeline Foundation has since trained around 12,500 persons in CPR as a part of a pilot project. These include teachers and students from various schools. “After the success of pilot projects, we are looking to train 40% of the physically fit and literate population above the age of 15 in CPR over next five years. With Vadodara Municipal Corporation, we are looking to train their employees over next year,” 23-year-old molecular biologist Shukanto says.
The other key segment, the foundation is now targeting is women. “We are targeting mainly homemakers, who we realise are more health conscious and would be more effective in such situations,” Das says. The foundation has been approached by the Surat Municipal Corporation, some corporate and institutions in Rajasthan for training too. However, the focus currently is on Vadodara, Shukanto says.
To begin with, the participants are given four-hour-long training in CPR. “There is a concept of golden hour where bystander can assist the patient. We not only teach them what to do but also what not to do in such a situation. We have taken baby steps but hope to build a community of CPR providers of a little over four lakh Vadodara citizens,” Shukanto adds.
Other than that, Shukanto plans to create a community of these “first responders” so that it can be approached in times of emergency, just like calling a taxi. The hope is to bring about a revolution in developing a group of “first responders” across the country, as it has done with ambulances in last 15 years.
“Life is about incremental change. We have played our part and we hope that our future generation would carry forward the baton,” Das says. A hope that we can only wish becomes a huge success.