KARACHI, Feb 5: The ratio of per vehicle fatality in Karachi is alarmingly higher than in major cities of other countries in the world.

This was observed by experts at a three-day 'primary trauma care' workshop/course organized jointly by the Primary Trauma Care Group, UK, and Sindh PTC Faculty in collaboration with the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT). The workshop, held at Dewan Farooq Medical Complex, concluded on Saturday.

The faculty comprised Prof J. Beavis, Dr James de Courcy, Dr Eamon McCoy, Prof Rasheed Jooma, Dr Shariq Ali, the course director of the PTC Group, Sindh, Dr Manzoor Hussain, and Dr Shili of the SIUT.

The experts noted with concern the increasing number of fatalities in road accidents as well as even greater number of people left impaired in such incidents all over the world.

They said that in order to ensure a decrease in the number of fatalities and ratio of impairment, the primary trauma care would have to be implemented through trained doctors and paramedics.

They pointed out that a proposal in this regard had been put forward to the World Health Organization in 1996 which provided for setting up and activating a faculty to impart such training to relevant professionals.

The PTC courses have been designed to develop skills of surgeons and anaesthetists in injury prevention strategies, as well as in the management of serious injuries, at local hospitals level.

The just concluded three-day course was aimed at imparting training to doctors and paramedics in recognition, stabilization and transfer of trauma victims for definitive treatment.

Dr Raseehd Jooma referred to the statistics pertaining to patients having received head injuries. Of the 500 patients admitted to hospitals, 54 per cent had suffered the injuries in road accidents. Among the rest, 26 per cent got themselves injured after having fallen from heights and 11 per cent after being attacked.

He stated that in the year 2003, a total of 2,184 people had sustained injuries in road accidents in Karachi and 1,222 of them died. Comparing the fatality figure per 10,000 vehicles with the statistics pertaining to road accidents in other major cities of the world, he said that Karachi maintained the ratio of 11.3 fatalities, Tokyo 1.4, Manchester 2.8 and Bangkok 10.

The faculty members were of the considered opinion that many lives could be saved and impairment avoided if immediate aid was provided to the injured to ensure their proper breathing and blood circulation after getting their injuries identified promptly. This requires training of first responders.

The workshop stressed that mass trauma, following disasters like earthquake, flood, major incident of fire, blast, etc., required immediate attention.

The experts discussed in detail management of head, spinal, abdominal, limbs and burn injuries.

Participants of the workshop/course included doctors from Karachi and other parts of Sindh.

The primary trauma care training will be provided to doctors in other provinces.-PPI