Acharapakkam appalled as free ambulance shed demolished

CHENNAI: Patricia turned pale when she saw the small shed which functioned as an office for her free ambulance service reduced to rubble. This shed was not just a building to her, it was a memorial. The free ambulance service was her way of making sure no one would go through the pain she suffered at the same spot 13 years ago.

Patricia Thomas lost her daughter and son-in-law in a car accident on the Chennai-Tiruchi Highway near Acharapakkam in 2004. The body of the newly married couple, hardly a month into their partnership lay on the side of road for two hours.

“No ambulance wanted to risk carrying a dead person,” said Patricia. Seeing their bodies being treated like roadkill, she decided to launch a free ambulance service which doesn’t discriminate between the dead and the living. “Even the dead deserve respect,” she says. 

So The Guardian Angel service was launched on November 29, 2004, birth anniversary of her  daughter, Sandra.

The then Kancheepuram Collector, R Venkatesan, allocated a place along the highway for construction of a shed to station the ambulance and for the service staff.

The owner of a nearby restaurant, who also had witnessed the accident, deeply moved by Patricia’s goodwill,  sponsored the construction of the small shed.

This ambulance service was inaugurated by the Collector himself. For the last 13 years, the service had ferried more than 1500 people along the stretch to hospitals for first aid.

However, on Friday morning, Velu M, ambulance driver, found the shed/office reduced to a rubble. “I came to the park the ambulance in the shed and open the office, but found the shed demolished. Nobody has any clue how it happened,” he said.

In November 2016, the restaurant behind the shed had changed hands and since then Patricia had received threats that the shed should be removed.  But, she had refused to change the location.

She claimed that the restaurant owner had said it was obstructing view of his establishment  and was hampering business.“The ambulance must be along the road and visible. Only then,  people will remember to use it in case of an emergency,” she said.

“I received permission from the Collector and I did not want to succumb to the pressure of this new restaurant owner,” she said.The restaurant owner, Shakthi Varman, however, denied any connection to the demolition. “We did not demolish the structure and have nothing to do with the whole incident,” he
told Express.

The Acharapakkam police made an entry in the community service register on Sunday. The police said they had utilised the ambulance on numerous occasions when they had received calls reporting an accident along the stretch.

“We immediately call Velu if we receive an accident call along the stretch. He doesn’t take any money from the victims,” said Shanmugam, a former writer at Acharapakkam police station.V Tamilvannan, Inspector of Acharapakkam.  who visited the spot on receiving information of the demolition, said the new restaurant is the only party which has a motive and conveniently say their night watchman was on leave and they didn’t know how it happened. “They can’t escape and deny any involvement. The threats sent using local politicians are an indication of a motive and we will ensure the shed is rebuilt,” he said.

Patricia spends around `40,000 a month to keep the service running. She said she will continue to do so.
“We started in 2004. That was 4 years before the 108 service was started and we were the only lifeline on this stretch,” says Velu who has been the ambulance driver since inception of the service.
The free ambulance service has over the years slowly helped Patricia heal and accept the loss of a family in the making.“I don’t understand how people have the heart to bring down a free service which has saved numerous lives,” says Patricia.