Stabbings, people set on fire, road accidents and suicides – he has seen them all. Ambulance pilot R. Marisamy, who has been at the wheel of an ‘108’ ambulance for the last six years, does not have an easy life.
Attached to the Collectorate ambulance station, this 41-year-old is one of the many ambulance drivers who do not have a fixed schedule and are not paid too well either. He hardly gets to spend about an hour with his family every day.
Yet, none of these factors affects his job as he veers through the traffic, taking calculated risks to save a life at stake.
In fact, Mr. Marisamy has become an expert in remaining calm under pressure after handling a variety of cases in his career. “I used to be stressed in the beginning. But, later on, I began practising yoga and learnt to be composed,” says Mr. Marisamy who is also the State vice-president of the ‘108’ Ambulance Workers’ Union.
“Not all calls made to ‘108’ in a day are genuine emergencies. There are calls that are not so critical, which we are forced to respond to,” he says.
“We have to treat each call with equal care. We never know how critical a person is until we get to the spot. A majority of calls are genuine, so we have to be at the location as quickly as possible,” he adds.
The ‘108’ service was started in November 2008 as a not-for-profit professional organisation operating in the public-private partnership mode.
A total of 19 ambulances are stationed in the urban and rural areas of Madurai district.
There are 61 ambulance pilots and 63 emergency medical technicians in the district.
The ambulances handle around 2,000 cases each month. A majority of cases pertain to road traffic accidents, says Gopi, District Project Manager.
Talking of the significance of good understanding with the emergency medical technician (EMT), Irulandi, another ambulance driver, says, “It is very important to coordinate with the technician as it is a teamwork that saves time in critical situations.”
“We are all trained to help the technician carry the patients gently onto the stretcher in case they suffer from hip or spinal injuries after an accident,” he adds.
It is the nobility attached to the profession that drives these men.
“While the attendants of patients thank us for having saved the life of their kin, the public respect us for the importance of our service. This gives us more satisfaction than anything else,” Mr. Marisamy concludes.
