Ropar hospitals without life-saving machine for cardiac arrest cases

Ropar hospitals lack electrical defibrillator facility, a necessity to save lives in cases involving a sudden cardiac arrest.

Hundreds of people are losing their lives in the district every year as they do not get emergency treatment through electrical defibrillators or cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). The nearest emergency treatment is available at the district headquarters or in Mohali district.

According to Civil Surgeon Dr Balwinder Kaur, in the government sector, there are just four electrical defibrillators in the district — three in the Ropar Civil Hospital and one in Anandpur Sahib.

Sources said in the private sector also, defibrillators are available just in a couple of hospitals. In the sub-divisions of Nangal and Chamkaur Sahib, electrical defibrillators are not available, both in the private and government sector.

An electrical defibrillator is a device that provides electric shock to heart to allow it to get out of a potentially fatal abnormal heart rhythm. According to a senior surgeon in Ropar, Dr RS Parmar, for many people, the chances of survival are as low as 1 to 2 per cent in case they are not given the CPR.

Dr Bhanu Parmar, a leading surgeon in Ropar, said according to Lancet, a renowned international journal, about 5 to 6 lakh people die every year in India due to sudden cardiac arrest. It is a condition in which a person suddenly collapses due to a dangerous rhythm disturbance in the heart. The time for intervention is barely a few minutes and in more than 90 per cent of the cases, sudden cardiac arrest leads to death. If common people know the life-saving skill of the CPR, they can get precious time till an ambulance or emergency response team arrives at the scene and the patient can be transported to a hospital, he said.

He further said that in India due to the lack of awareness, policies and fear of legal issues the bystanders are not able to respond appropriately in such cardiac situations. Hence the survival rates after sudden cardiac arrest in India are as low as 1-2 per cent.

Punjab