‘Feeling’ is also believing: Dr Md Sami Al Sufi
By PRABEER SIKDAR
DEHRADUN, 17 April 2009:
For Dr Md Sami Al Sufi, EMRI’s Advanced Clinical Educator from Hyderabad, Thursday’s one day Basic life Support Training Programme for the 70 Visually Challenged students of NIVH was a learning experience for him as well.
“This was the first time in my life when I taught Life Saving Skills to visually challenged people,” he told Garhwal Post, pointing out that in a similar training programme for normal people, they usually bank on a lot of video footage for explaining the basics of life saving skills to the participants.
“Today’s training session taught me another important lesson, i.e., feeling is also believing,” said Sufi, who has also trained trainers in Life Saving Skills in Hyderabad.
The one day training session, in which partially as well as completely visually challenged students were divided into two groups, was led by Dr Vijay Mittal, HoD of EMRI’s Emergency Medical Learning Care. It also included two Advanced Clinical Educators and three EMLC instructors.
Life Skills
The life skills taught to these students by the EMRI experts had really come late for many of the participants. “Had I known these techniques earlier, I could have saved the life of a motorist, who died due to excessive bleeding in a bike-car collision in Moradabad two years ago,” said Surjeet Singh, a sighted student of Bachelor of Mobility Science, who is undergoing a course in NIVH.
Explaining further, Singh said that since an average human has about 5 litres of blood, ‘it becomes extremely crucial to prevent blood loss during accidents’. “This can be done by tying a piece of wet cloth/ handkerchief tightly at the affected place,” added Singh, who had already attended the programme in the first session.
Similar is the case with other visually challenged participants like 38-year-old Dev Kumar Sharma, Yogesh Kumar and others, who all now feel confident of rescuing even normal people.
Other skills
Apart from teaching the technique of administering Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), the students were also taught basic skills to tackle problems like fits, fainting (giddiness), chest pain, removal of airways obstruction in choking patients, bleeding nose problems, etc.
“Ironically, in many of these instances, though the visually challenged students would not be able to see the problems themselves, but if told by someone, it can definitely help in saving the life of the victim,” said Sufi, while pointing out that the life of a victim ought not to be compromised till the arrival of Emergency Medicare.
“Even if 108 services are called during emergencies, what people should understand is that there is no guarantee that they can always reach on time,” he said, emphasising the need for compulsory training in Basic Life Skills for everyone.
“The Golden Hour (first hour when the patient gets affected) is very crucial in CPR cases.”
“If you compare the scenario in the US, there, almost 88% of the people are capable of administering CPR,” he disclosed, adding that till March 2009, EMRI had trained 850 participants in Life Saving Skills in the state.
Misconceptions
Sufi also highlighted many prevailing misconceptions with people with regard to Basic Life Skills.
“For instance, in nose bleeding cases, there is a myth that making the victim smell onion helps. Similarly, in cases of fits, people make the victim smell onions, shoes and are also known to place keys in the fists of the victim,” he said.
“Instead, what we have taught the students is that in cases of fits (since, they cannot see, somebody has to tell them), they were told to immediately remove sharp objects from the vicinity of the patient, loosen their clothes, provide breathing space and protect their heads. As regards fainting, they were told to make the victim lie down and to raise their legs up to 12 inches to help restore blood circulation to the brain…”
Problems
According to Sufi, who also has a degree in Life Saving Skills from Stanford University (US), this was the first time for EMRI to conduct Life Saving Workshop for the visually challenged in India.
“So, in order to understand the problems of the visually challenged, the EMRI trainers were forced to explain some of the techniques blindfolded,” he explained.
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