Timely intervention by a city-based anaesthetist saved a 37-year-old runner who had collapsed 500 m before the finish line during Sunday’s Mumbai Marathon.
Dr. Bina Apotikar, who attended the event to cheer the runners, questioned the medical emergency preparedness at the event, and said the State-run 108 ambulance that arrived at the spot was ill-equipped.
According to Dr. Apotikar, around 8 a.m., she saw a man who had collapsed and was shouting for help. The runner was vomiting profusely. She said, “Some people had called the 108 ambulance, which had a blood pressure monitor. I quickly checked the runner’s BP and it was drastically low at 60/37. I asked the doctor in the ambulance for a scalp vein and other stuff for starting an intravenous line (IV). But the ambulance had only one RL bottle [fluid, used in the treatment of short-term fluid replacement] and a microdrip set, which is commonly used for paediatric patients. I somehow started the IV line.”
Dr. Apotikar could only find one ampule of an injection that prevented vomiting, and said the doctor in the ambulance handed her a ryles (nasogastric) tube when she asked for an IV set. “The runner was suffering from hypovolemic shock [a life-threatening condition when a patient loses more than one-fifth of his or her blood or fluid supply]. He could have had a cardiac arrest without timely intervention,” she said.
Dr. Ashish Yadav, head of the Mumbai zone of Maharashtra Emergency Medical Services that runs the 108 ambulance service, confirmed that they had dispatched an ambulance for a marathoner who had collapsed near the BSNL building at Fort. “We had a Bachelor of Unani Medicine and surgery doctor on the ambulance. He helped the patient with the IV fluid, injection and was at the spot till 9.15 a.m. when another ambulance came and took the patient to the medical base camp,” said Dr. Yadav. The patient was treated aptly on the scene, he said. “Our doctor recorded it as a case of heat stroke.”
Another runner, Dr. Manasi Deshmukh, who had participated in the Dream Run corroborated Dr. Apotikar’s account. According to Dr. Deshmukh, the event volunteers who had gathered at the spot were desperately attempting to reach their medical team. “But they were asked to get the patient to the medical base camp,” said Dr. Deshmukh, who had called the 108 ambulance.
Negating Dr. Apotikar’s account, a joint statement from the race promoters — Procam International and their medical partner Asian Heart Institute — said the 37-year-old runner was severely cramped at the 20-km mark and had to sit. “He was helped by fellow runners and good samaritans, and given water and nourishment. He continued to remain there for an extended period of time. He was then taken to the AHI Medical Base Camp at Azad Maidan and attended to by our medical team. Post treatment he was discharged and is hale and hearty,” it said.
No such life-threatening emergency took place, according to the runner, the statement said. “He is a regular runner, has completed marathons before, and is in fact back at work in his office in Mumbai,” it said.
The statement reiterated that keeping in mind the rise in number of runners this year, medical facilities had been ramped up, and personnel were briefed on the facilities en route and the standard operating procedures to be followed in case of emergencies.
