PESHAWAR: Lady Reading Hospital has donated 50 life-saving modern tourniquets (device for stopping blood flow through vein or artery) at the end of three-day training to policemen to help them decrease casualties from explosions and firearm injuries due to profuse bleeding.

“Our police are the first responder to accidents and emergencies due to which they require proper training to stay safe from serious trauma and disabilities, they face during the course of their duty,” LRH director Dr Khalid Masud told the participants of the training on Thursday.

He said that the tourniquets, each valued Rs1,800, were donated by the hospital welfare society to enable the policemen to stop bleeding of their colleagues and transport them to hospitals. Most of the deaths occurred due to late arrival and bleeding, he added.

Dr Khalid said that in case of any accident, firearm or bomb explosion, the initial 20 to 30 minutes were of critical significance during which the victims should be rushed to the hospitals. Many times, the injured lost their lives due to severe bleeding, he added.

“With the help of modern tourniquet, one can prevent the flow of blood from the seriously injured person and it can save many lives,” he said.

Dr Khalid said that such type of trainings would also be arranged in future. He said that LRH was the only public sector hospitals where doctors received postgraduate training in management of accidents and trauma.

Chief of Capital City Police Mohammad Ali Gandapur on the occasion thanked the hospital staff for donation of tourniquets and said that those would be used by newly-created City Patrolling Force during duty.

SSP Operation Zahoor Babar Afridi, SSP Headquarters Khan Khel Khan and DSP City Patrolling Usman Khan other police officers and doctors attended the event.

Published in Dawn, January 24th, 2020