The paucity of ambulance services led a group of youth in Mahbubnagar to take matters into their own hands, as they pushed accident victims in the dead of the night on a pushcart to the hospital.
Twenty three-year-old Mohammed Sufiyan Ali and Mohammed Aijaz, both businessmen and social activists, were out helping a friend dealing with an emergency. Around 1.30 a.m. on July 30, they received a call about a road accident in Mettugadda, near the electricity office.
“We saw two youngsters on the road who were seriously injured. We looked around for help but found nothing. We called 108 for nearly 45 minutes, but there was no ambulance available. All the private vehicles we tried to stop were full,” says Sufiyan, who is also the State secretary of the Students Islamic Organisation.
With no help in sight, the duo and their associates saw a mirchi pushcart nearby. They put the injured persons on it and began to push it towards the hospital as fast as they could. “The only thing on our minds was to try and save them. Aijaz and I along with the others took the injured to the Government General Hospital in Mahbubnagar. It was after 1.30 a.m. and we pushed the bandi for nearly 1.5 km. We then moved the injured persons onto the stretcher and with the help of the hospital staff, took them inside,” Sufiyan said.
The youth then followed up on the treatment of the injured persons the next day, but found out that they were moved to the Osmania General Hospital. Their names were not recorded and their identity was registered as ‘unknown’, the said. “We only wish that that ambulance services are readily available here,” they said.
The duo are not strangers to helping people. In the recent past, during the lockdown, Aijaz, says Sufian, was involved in distributing ration to migrant workers.
