hit n escape!!

09-Jan-2011 time nearing 3 o clock.. I am cruising at around 80's on the bannerughatta road and the radio indigo is playing out the top 40 singles of the week. The volume is little loud and it was kind of good relaxation for the brain. I was getting a feeling that sunday was going just right.
As I am nearing the city limits, I see a jam and traffic slows down as usual. Using the usual Bangalore style of maneuvering, I make my way through the traffic!
As I move forward, I see a slightly scratched santro coming out of the traffic mess. Cursing the fellow santro driver for coming on wrong side, I move ahead. I see around 10-20 folks have assembled near the BMTC bus and are checking out something.
I sense that santro might have hit the bus or vice versa and move forward. To my surprise, I see that bus is around 10 feet from the spot of accident and I see a man lying in a pool of blood.
Next, I find that around 10-15 men who have surrounded this accident victim and they are clueless of what next to do. I stop my car beside them and ask what happened? One person says' Its common saaar.. sunday alwa. kudi bandu gaadi odisi hinge madtare. nivu hogi ' I think, ah.. I ask the next person, "yaru adru hospital ge kardu kondu hoga barada?" he replies, "ambulance ge phone madtha idivi saar, nivu hogi hinde jam agide!".
I have seen the jams on the Bannerughatta road and decided that its better I pick this person and take him to the nearest hospital. I ask the folks in my car and the ladies readily get down from the car in agreement to my thoughts.
I get down from the car and I think I should do something for this bleeding person on the road. I check for some kind of cloth and see a newspaper waste shop nearby. I run and pick up few papers without even asking the owner. I come back to car and spread these sheets on the seat. I ask the folks to lift the victim and put him in my car. The folks around the victim , look at each other and expects other one to do the honors. Getting impatient, I call Vatsa and Deepak . Seeing few folks coming ahead, 3-4 more people jump in.
Huh, Indian public.. Always needs to be lead or shown how to do a task! the typical fear factor about the accident cases must be hovering in their mind. I ask the people on the road to shift the person onto my car.
Now, that the person in the car. My next problem is to find the nearest hospital. Our sign boards talk in all languages and give all info except about hospitals, police stations or fire services. I can ask few people around and come to know that next hospital is around 3-4 kms away.
I take the mobile of the victim and hand it over to Deepak. I asked him to search for names like Appa, Amma or Mane and make calls to them. He scans through the mobile and finds that there are only 3 names. We called up the first 2 names and it was busy. The last name , Mama in the phone did not exist. Deepak was able to connect to one person and explained him the situation. The person appeared to be least bothered and said I know this person when he was working with me. I dont know his whereabouts or have any other info. The last person is the only hope and still we dont know the name of this victim correctly.
Deepak calls the third person and find out his name. He also asks him to inform the news to his parents or the concerned folks.
We arrive @ hospital and the security guards @ the hospital do the needful since the there is less staff on sunday. We rush him to the emergency ward and doctors make a quick round of checks. They ask us few q's and came to know that we are just strangers who have helped this victim.
We try to head back to the same place to pick the remaining folks when the doctor says that its recommended to wait until the victim's relatives or parents arrive to the hospital. We would be able to give them the necessary information which can be useful to them.
We make calls to the numbers listed in the cell once again and came to know that the victim's brother is on the way. Once he was there, we explained him the situation, gave him the number of the car and left for the day. After we drove back to the dhabha, few lines said by the doctor left me thinking..
The doctor said that usually private hospital dont entrain the accident case patients. Since there is change in rule, they can treat the accident victim. I was shocked by the statement of the doctor and asked him what are we supposed to do in case of such instances. He coolly says that we need to take the patient to the nearest available government hospital. I was surprised at such rule which our country is having. We all know that medical care centers are lesser in number and no one would remember the nearest government health care center in case of such situations. even then having such a rule is sheer inhuman and at time of need, it would be forcing the accident victim to look for nearest "government" health care center rather any center which can provide medical help.
Given the state of facilities and corruption in our government hospitals, I wonder if accident victims can even hope for a good treatment at such places.
Wish the government considers that time is the essence and its important to save the lives of the people rather than expecting the medical fraternity to function according to the archic rules of the law makers.

Comments

ANS said…
thats one stupid rule that they have created abt not treating the victims.. Nice narration Harsha.. Good work..
Vaatsalya said…
Although a doctor is free to choose whom he will serve, his liberty does not extend to accident, injury and emergency cases. As per law, hospitals, nursing homes and clinics of doctors, that declare, or profess, in writing that they provide emergency sevices/24 hour services are legally bound to attend all the cases . Failure to have the requisite equipment in working order and non-availability of competent staff within reasonable time would be inferred as medical negligence.
But few hospitals avoid such cases because they do not have required facilities at an affordable cost, hence requesting[commanding] to move the patient party to nearby government hospital or established trauma / emergency care hospital
Harsha G S said…
@ Vaatsalya,
Thanks for that input. If a medical care center, request the patient to be moved for the sake of avoiding such cases; wont it constitute as medical negligence?
Mayur said…
Good work Harhsa..its always good to help such people in trouble, but we have to be careful, if somebody commits some mistake and run away, we just cant become witness and keep making rounds to court and trials.

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