It is a new lease of life for a 50-year-old man who sustained grievous injuries while crossing the railway track at Dasarajapalli, near here, as a team of the Aurobindo Emergency Medical Service carried him for more than 2 km before putting him in a 108 ambulance vehicle and taking him to the Government General Hospital (GGH) on Ongole within the golden hour.
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“I was severely inured and it was a remote locality. I would have died had it not been for the ambulance,” says Mr. Nagaraj while recalling his nightmarish experience on the night of October 11. He thanks the medical crew of the 108 ambulance service led by G. Gangadhar, who administered him first-aid before handing over to the doctors at the GGH.
Dargah Mastanvali, the driver of a 108 ambulance vehicle, recalls how he saved the lives of 12 people after a Tirupati-bound van from Vijayawada collided with a truck near Tangutur on the Chennai-Kolkata national highway. Four people had died in the accident. “We took two trips to rush the injured to the GGH. We (the ambulance crew) were overwhelmed when they met us six months after the accident,” says Mr. Mastanvali with a sense of satisfaction, adding that the survivors from Karimnagar in Telangana visited him recently to say thanks for saving their lives.
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“ We faced trying situations during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic. We were scared, despite wearing the PPE kits. But, it was call of the duty after all. We had to rise to the occasion and we did it. We lived in isolation, stayed away from our families. But it was worth it. We had saved thousands of lives. ”Anjaneyulu Ambulance driver
Another ambulance driver, Anjaneyulu recalls the trying situation during the first wave of coronavirus pandemic. Even close family members of those who contracted the infection feared to come near the patients. “We were scared, despite wearing the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits. But, it was call of the duty after all. We had to rise to the occasion and we did it. We lived in isolation, stayed away from our families. But it was worth it. We had saved thousands of lives,” he says.
K. Srinivasulu says that more than 70 women have safely delivered in his ambulance in the last five years. “Once we were rushing a 25-year-old pregnant woman from a hospital in Kondepi to the district hospital. She went into labour in the vehicle. We helped her deliver en route,” he says.
There were inly two ambulance vehicles in Prakasam district in 2005. Now, the district has a fleet of 59 vehicles which make at least four trips daily, says district manager S. Vijay Kumar.
Each vehicle with five staff members takes about 15 minutes to reach the needy in cities and towns, while the response time is around 20 minutes for the patients in remote villages, including those living in the fringes of Nallamalla forests inhabited by Chenchu tribals. “We find it hard to arrange vehicles when the number of patients referred to bigger hospitals in places away from Ongole such as Guntur or Nellore for better treatment,” he says.
It has always been a herculean task for the two mechanics to maintain the fleet in running condition as they have to wait for spare parts to arrive from far-away places such as Hyderabad in case of breakdowns, says District Fleet Manager S. Pawan Kumar.