City ill-equipped to treat people injured in blasts

Not enough doctors around with specialisation in treating trauma cases

Not enough doctors around with specialisation in treating trauma cases

When blast victims of German Bakery were wheeled into the emergency ward of Ruby Hospital on February 13, the doctor treating them was a cardiologist, instead of a specialist for trauma emergencies. Similarly, in Inlak Budhrani Hospital, the doctor in charge was a thoracic and intensivist.

Medical experts feel that treating blast victims needs trauma experts. For example, army doctors are equipped to handle cases of the injury due to fragments and shrapnel.

Lt Colonel S P Jyoti, Medical Director of Paraplegic Rehabilitation Centre, and who has operated soldiers in a war zone, said, "Blast victims need to be handled by trauma specialists. Even a good heart surgeon cannot operate the head or abdomen."

"Since civilian doctors don't have expertise in treating blast injury patients, they should be referred to doctors who are an MD in Emergency Medicine. But there is a shortage of such doctors because SRMC College in Chennai is the only one that has courses in this field," Dr Prasad Rajhans, pioneer of Emergency Medical Services, Pune, added.

Dr Avinash Bhondve, former president of Indian Medical Association agreed, "We neither have a proper hospital to deal with trauma cases in Pune, nor do we have sufficient ambulances. If a big mishap occurs, we don't have even enough ambulances."

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