01 August 2004	Sunday	14 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425

KARACHI, July 31: The Edhi Foundation has entered into an agreement with the anaesthesiology and pain management department of Civil Hospital Karachi to get 300 of its pre-hospital handlers, associated with its ambulance services , to be adequately trained in basic as well as advanced life support techniques.

The very training is deemed to be urgent and fit as the Edhi Ambulance Service - one of the most commonly availed assistance acquired by public in emergency cases - has registered constant surge in transportation of trauma cases that are often near collapse requiring extremely careful handling.

According to Faisal Edhi, the initiative is part of the Edhi Emergency Medical Care Services which will soon be launched in Karachi to be followed in other urban centres of Sindh and Punjab and gradually to rural parts of the two provinces.

He said that around 50 per cent of patients transported to hospitals from across the city through Edhi ambulances were of injury or collapse, which were often consequent to massive blood loss and closely followed by fractures, burns, heart attack and so forth. These instances also made it necessary that the volunteers concerned were provided hands on training in life saving techniques, including that of cardio pulmonary resuscitation.

His explanation is further supplemented by the fact that more than 200 cases are reported daily at the emergency department of Civil Hospital. Several of them are in coma conditions where a slight delay could be fatal.

According to the anaesthesiology and surgical intensive care unit head of Civil Hospital, Prof Tipu Sultan, over 70 patients report with collapse and in almost coma condition at the casualty department of Civil Hospital daily on an average.

"This warrants urgency to ensure that doctors and all paramedics are well acquainted with basic life support and advance life support techniques besides capable to administer cardio-pulmonary resuscitation techniques," he said.

Mentioning that more than 200 patients are attended daily at Civil Hospital's casualty department, he said that at times even 100 of them were the collapsed cases, which were often a manifestation of excessive bleeding owing either to gynaecological complication or consequent to road accidents, bullet injuries or any other category of trauma.

In case of certain ailments too, such interventions were required, he said.

Prof Tipu Sultan maintained that it was the very idea that the Civil Hospital arranged the Neonatal Resuscitation Workshop on Friday under the supervision of Dr Abdul Rasheed, a certified trainer of the American Academy of Paediatricians.

He said that the workshop, envisaged to train master trainers for Sindh, was participated by doctors associated with Civil Hospital Karachi, Sindh Government Qatar Hospital, National Institute of Child Health, Liaquat National Hospital, Baqai Hospital and Ziauddin University and Liaquat Medical University, Hyderabad.

It may be mentioned here that out of five million newborns in the country, two million are born only in Sindh every year. Around 200,000 of them are estimated to need proper resuscitation to avoid death or disability, yet a vast majority of health care centres is devoid of required facilities while the doctors concerned are also little versed in resuscitation techniques. -APP