Fortis Hospital Vashi organized Basic Life Support and CPR training for Navi Mumbai Traffic Police

Fortis Hospital Vashi organized a “Basic Life Support” training program for the Traffic Police Officers of Navi Mumbai on Thursday, April 09, 2015 at Fortis Vashi. The Police Officers found the training programme to be relevant & interesting, and participated enthusiastically.

The training programme was conducted by Dr. Rahul Gupta, Senior Cardiologist at Fortis Hospital. The highlight of this training programme was the session on the Cardio Pulmonary Recitation (CPR) techniques conducted by Dr. Gupta. Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation is a lifesaving technique useful in medical emergencies such as Heart attack, in which someone's breathing or heartbeat has stopped. CPR is performed in an effort to manually revive the Heart pumping and thereby restore brain function until further measures are taken to restore spontaneous blood circulation and breathing in a person who is in cardiac arrest.

Medical emergencies can strike anytime, anywhere – even on roads –and in most cases, medical assistance is not immediately available. Hence, medical professionals recommend first aid, a temporary help given to a victim before professional medical help can be provided. This timely assistance is most critical to victims, and in most cases, it turns out to be life-saving. A first-aider’s immediate response in the first five minutes after the incident is a determining factor of what will happen to the victim in the next one hour. An arrest can occur after a heart attack. In such case, the victim still has ample air in the lungs and blood, and chest compressions keep blood flowing to the brain, heart and other organs.

As part of the programme, Dr Gupta shared the guidelines on Prevention of Cardiac Diseases with the team of Traffic Police Officers. He explained the “Do’s and Don’ts” to be followed by the first-aid providers in the event of road traffic accidents. He also explained in great detail the infection control measures in the event of accidents. “We feel that such trainings will help the Traffic Police to provide value-added service to people and save many lives,” said Dr Gupta.

Mr Arvind Salve, Deputy Commissioner of Traffic Police, Navi Mumbai, stressed on importance of people being aware on how to provide Basic Life Support to a patient/accident victim before medical help is available. “Given their proximity to the victims, Traffic Police Officers are in ideal position to help them. One of the key responsibilities of a Traffic Police Office is to provide first-aid and shift the patient to the hospital. Thus, the police force must be trained in these life-saving skills to handle medical emergencies,” said Mr Salve.

Dr Bipin Chevale, Facility Director, Fortis Hospital Vashi said “It is vital that policemen are trained in basic life support and rescue systems. If an accident victim is given life support and rushed to a hospital with established trauma care, within the golden hour, it is estimated that about 8 out of 10 who would normally die in road traffic accidents can be saved.”

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