LIFE INTERRUPTED

“Accidents often happen to young bread winners of families. Even small accidents can change a person’s life and that of the family members,” says Dr. N. Jambu, Senior Consultant Orthopaedics), Apollo Speciality Hospital, Vanagaram, Chennai, speaking at length about the nature of trauma care.

- Swati Amar

Golden Hour

“The golden hour or the first one hour is important for saving the life of an accident victim,” says Dr. Jambu,” Ambulances of major private hospitals like Apollo and 108 of government hospitals have necessary life-saving infrastructure. Ambulances run by small private hospitals lack lifesaving equipment and knowledgeable, trained emergency care team.

My plea to the government is to make it mandatory for ambulances to take accident victims to the nearest Level 1 hospital or government hospital within the golden hour, if possible, instead of taking them to any nearby hospital. Healthcare officials/ providers must also make it mandatory for ambulance personnel to be educated and trained in trauma care and ensure ambulances have adequate infrastructure. Here, would like to appreciate the Innuyir Kappom Scheme announced by the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, where every accident victim gets free treatment for the first 48 hours, if the accident happens within Tamil Nadu,” says Dr. Jambu.

How an accident victim is transported to the hospital is very important. Victims must be shifted using a spine board for spine injuries, hard cervical collar for neck injury, splint in the case of fractures, tourniquet to arrest blood flow, pelvic binders for pelvic fracture. In the case of head injury, the patient must be shifted to a hospital with all facilities like CT scan and immediately taken for surgery by a neurosurgeon, to prevent mortality and morbidity.

First Steps