Cardio-vascular diseases kill the most number of people around the world due to poor emergency care and the situation is not different in India.
It is mainly due to the lack of awareness of the importance of Basic Life Support (BLS) methods and Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR).
Many patients who suffer acute myocardial infarction (heart attack) die before reaching hospitals because they lack knowledge of the ways of saving lives, said NTR University of Health Sciences (NTRUHS) Vice-Chancellor T. Ravi Raju.
Inaugurating an International Training Centre (ITC) that imparts short-duration courses in BLS, on the university premises here on Friday, Mr. Raju said emergency care was pathetic in the country and unless medical students, health care professionals and general public knew how to save lives, cardiac diseases would continue to take a heavy toll.
ITC was a joint initiative of NTRUHS and American Heart Association which did commendable work in the field of BLS and standards developed by it were followed the world over.
The AHA-certified BLS course was made mandatory for MBBS and nursing students and house surgeons and they were expected to take it seriously in order to impart the life-saving skills to every individual at a time when cardiac arrest remained a substantial public health problem. It was also significant cause of mortality among children.
NTRUHS Registrar S. Babulal, Academic Director G. Krishna Murthy, academic coordinator K. Sobha, Professor of Anaesthesiology of Siddhartha Medical College T. Suryasri, Assistant Professor Srilatha and resource persons Y. Ashok and Radhika were among those present.
