Doctor breathes life into epileptic patient using CPR on the street

NAGPUR: Dr Umesh Ramtani, assistant professor in anaesthesiology department of Indira Gandhi Government Medical College and Hospital (IGMCH), literally breathed new life into a youth by performing Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) in the middle of the street recently.

Ramtani was driving back home from Mangalwari vegetable market on November 7 at around 6.30pm. He noticed a 20-year-old youth collapsed over the front headlight cover while seated in the driver's seat of a bike parked on the street. His friend sitting behind him was shouting for help.

Without wasting a moment, Ramtani rushed towards the boy and checked his pulse. Ramtani said, "The boy was experiencing an epileptic seizure. I couldn't feel his pulse and he was having convulsions. He was also frothing and bleeding from the mouth, since his braces had broken due to the convulsions."

Ramtani took the help of passers-by to lay the boy down on the ground. "By that time the convulsions had reduced. I then took out a stethoscope from the car, and checked his heart beat, but there was still no response."

"Meanwhile, his friend went to call the youth's parents, who lived nearby. I then decided to go for CPR. This means massaging the chest to make the heart pump blood. I did that for about 4 minutes, and his pulse had revived by the time his parents arrived. He was even conscious enough to tell his name," he said.

Ramtani helped carry the boy to his house, and soon the ambulance arrived to take him to the hospital

Ramtani said, "The boy is a known case of epilepsy. His friends told me he had seizures in the past too. However, seizures don't make the pulse rate go down unless the patient is in an unsuitable situation. Like in this case, the boy was driving. In such patients, they are told never to drive. Moreover, his friend told me he is a rash driver."

Besides, Ramtani has to face a problem in giving CPR, since the bystanders were not allowing him to do so. He said, "People were ready to apply their own myths. A man wanted to make the boy drink kerosene, while another wanted to make him eat onion. I had to announce that I am a doctor before they let me do my job."

"Even at IGMCH, we get cases where relatives have made the patient drink kerosene, thinking it has medicinal properties. We lose such patients since they aspirate kerosene in the lungs."

Ramtani, who is also treasurer of the city branch of Indian Society of Anaesthesiologists (ISA), has also trained over 4,500 citizens to give CPR in the last seven months. ISA president Dr Sheetal Dalal said, "In a project themed 'you can save one life', we are educating people about CPR so that each individual can perform it in an emergency. We will continue such activities in future too."