March 18, 2004

Shazman Shariff speaks to the Edhi Centre’s ambulance drivers whose sheer dedication and commitment to a tough profession merits recognition

It was one of the most tense moments in Saleem’s career as an ambulance driver. He was stuck in a traffic jam with a patient whose condition was worsening with every passing second. The patient’s wife went hysterical when she saw her husband foaming at the mouth, but there was nothing Saleem could do to overpass the sea of cars ahead of him. The loud siren continued to echo in the air and he helplessly saw one more life slipping away.

In his 18-year association with the Edhi Foundation, Saleem, 50, has experienced innumerable moments of grief and despair. However, the tough times have made him a much stronger and dedicated driver. Recollecting memories of his first assignment, he said, “I was sent to collect an unclaimed body. It was partially decomposed with maggots crawling in and out of it. At first I felt disgust, but I was able to take it to the morgue.”

He recounted his time spent at Sangi, where a tragic train accident had taken place. He stayed there for 22 days and worked to bathe and bury the countless bodies of the ill-fated passengers. “I feel as though I have become stone hearted and quite used to gory sights,” he said. But although injuries and killings are an every day affair for him, he is still sensitive to these tragic incidents. With deep remorse he talked about the loss of his colleague, Ameen, who died recently after falling into the oil tank of a ship.

For Haji Abdul Ghaffar, 25 years of working as an ambulance driver have been rewarding and encouraging. Earlier, a bus conductor, he approached Edhi when he felt an urge to serve humanity. With regard to the good qualities of an ambulance driver, he said dedication and alertness, besides skillful driving, are very essential. “There is no room for laziness. We deal with emergencies and can’t afford to waste even a second,” said Ghaffar, adding that it is a special kind of job that not everyone can perform.

Content with his work, he thought his monthly income of Rs4,500 was reasonably sufficient to support his wife and three children. He wished people would show more respect and consideration for ambulances by making way for them on the roads. He regretted that VIP movements cause so many problems, adding that things could improve if VIPs used helicopters instead of cars. The other thing he felt sorry about was the misuse of the siren by some drivers.

For Mohammad Waseem, 33, being an emergency driver had been a ‘childhood fascination’. “When I was a child the sound of an ambulance siren excited me and I always longed to become an ambulance driver,” he said. Having abandoned his studies before completing his Matric, the young boy was a competent driver when he went to the Edhi Centre and asked for a job. It was a dream come true for him when he passed the trial and was employed 18 years ago.

“Though we have a 12-hour duty, we are on call for 24 hours. Sometimes we don’t even get the time to eat or sleep,” he said.

Ambulance drivers are trained in first aid and take special care if the patient has fractured bones, is a pregnant woman, or a heart patient. “In these cases we drive at a slower speed, but what is troublesome is the bad condition of the roads which are torturous for the patients,” said Waseem.

His experiences have been eventful as there have been times when his own life has been at stake. The sole bread winner of the family revealed that he has been beaten up and held hostage by hooligans on several occasions. “I have been caught in crossfire. I have watched my colleagues get killed. For this reason, my father once asked me to quit but noting could dissuade me.”

Recalling an unforgettable moment of his career, he said, in the mid-90s Karachi had become a victim of sectarian violence. During that period he was called to one of the danger areas of the city where 11 boys were killed. Waseem was aghast to see they had been shot dead at point blank range, and their brains were splattered all over the walls.

Although, their encounter with pain and misery is frequent, there are also plenty of occasions that have given them a reason to smile. For instance there was a case of a drug addict who was declared dead, who, while on his way to the morgue, suddenly got up and escaped from the ambulance and was never found.

Familiar with the city’s nooks and corners like the back of his hand, Siraj Ahmed felt that one couldn’t succeed in this field if he lacked khidmat ka jazba. His shift from a private driver to his present job has made him realize that one needs stronger nerves to be an ambulance driver. He said that in the beginning his family tried to stop him, but he was determined to do the job.

In his 15 years of experience, Ahmed has witnessed uncountable occasions when he saw death and despair from a close range. Though all the sights of bodies and dying people are vivid in his mind, he said it was difficult to pick a particular one as having been the worst. However, he remembered the troubled times the Karachi faced in 1994. He had to crawl on the ground to collect the injured and bring them to the ambulance on his back.

“I have become used to seeing brutally injured people, but there are still times when I feel distressed after seeing patients in a critical and helpless condition,” said Ahmed. Striving to support his six-member family on his Rs4,500 a month salary, he said that while there is a great sense of satisfaction in his work, one gets little in terms of monetary gains. He conceded he would not mind calling it a day, if he was offered a better paid job. “I need money to marry off my two daughters, which I can’t earn through this work.”

Mir Afzal has been working with the Edhi Foundation since 1979, and he called it a rewarding experience which has given him a sense of fulfillment, that he had not been able to achieve with his earlier job as a bus driver. “When I rush to get to some patient or collect a body, I have this thing in my mind that it could be someone from my family.”

Afzal said he was happy to have had a chance to do some social work. His most unforgettable assignment was the one when somebody had called to inform about a body lying near a railway track. “It was night. With the aid of the ambulance’s headlight I spotted a headless body. After a long search I also managed to find its head, that had been thrown into the nearby bushes.”

While voicing his grievances regarding misuse of ambulances, Afzal said, “Sometimes people call us even when there is no emergency and they can reach the hospital on their own. This way genuine patients miss their chance of availing our service.” He also lamented that the emergency staff at hospitals don’t show mercy towards the unclaimed bodies and the poor patients. “Sometimes they even curse us for taking them to the hospitals and don’t attend to them immediately.”

Formerly a rickshaw driver, Perdil Khan also entered the field because of his passion for social work. “I have collected dismembered bodies with a spade, torn apart in bomb blasts and other serious accidents. I have transported decomposed bodies dumped in gunny bags. I am content with my job and so is my family.”

Khan remembered the time when he fished out an old body from a sewer and was applauded by the people who watched him do so. With great pride he gave an account of how he had collected dead and injured bodies of stray cats and dogs. It doesn’t come as surprise that these men are trained to show sympathy and care towards animals also.

“Edhi sahib, our main source of inspiration gives a special award to those who dispose off bodies of animals, and I take great pride in performing this work,” said Khan, who has been with the foundation for 18 years. He hopes that he shall be able to serve with the same dedication for many more years to come.

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)