Next time if you decide to help a road accident victim, do not sprinkle water on the unconscious injured person as this water may go directly to his lungs and cause pneumonia which might prove more fatal than the original injury.
In fact, there are several such wrong practices unwittingly followed by people while shifting road accident victims to hospitals, which sometime prove fatal. Against this background, Dr. Amar Chauhan of Ayushman Hospital in Gurgaon has launched an awareness campaign on the issue and plans to display over 5,000 laminated posters across the city to educate people on how injured persons can be transported safely to a hospital.
“In India, there is no dedicated Emergency Medical Services as in the U.K. or the U.S.; most of the times, it is the passer-by who is the first responder in case of an accident. It has also been seen that people do not wait for the ambulance and accident victims are bundled up in private vehicles and transferred to hospitals. I have attended to a large number of trauma victims over the years and seen how little mistakes made while transferring injured persons often prove fatal. So I decided to create awareness on this issue with hundreds of people, mostly youths, killed on the roads every year,” said Dr. Chauhan.
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The idea struck him when he once spotted a poster prominently displayed at the AIIMS trauma centre premises stressing the need for cleanliness in the hospital. “I found it an effective and economical method to convey message to the masses. I have earlier made a film on first-aid for accident victims, but one can reach out to more people through posters.”
The posters designed by Dr. Chauhan explain pictorially the correct ways of transporting accident victims to hospital. “For example, we always try to make accident patients sit, but by doing so, we can cause further damage if a patient has suffered neck or backbone fracture. It can also make him dizzy as he might be having internal haemorrhage and in a sitting posture, blood supply to the brain decreases. The main cause of death in such accidents are loss of airway and bleeding; if we can take care of these things, lots of lives can be saved,” he said.
He has also tried to clear the misconception that the police might take action against those helping accident victims in a bid to try and encourage more people to help accident victims. He also took the Gurgaon police in confidence regarding the campaign and got the posters released by the Gurgaon Police Commissioner. The posters will be displayed at metro stations, railway stations, petrol pumps, hospitals and police stations for maximum visibility.
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Dr. Chauhan is now looking for a helping hand from the corporate houses and other organisations to share costs and take forward the campaign.