Madurai: Doctors used manual pumps to revive trauma patients

MADURAI: It was nothing short of a nightmare for doctors and nursing staff in ward 101 of the trauma care centre at Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) where three patients died during a power failure. Doctors had to attend to patients using light from their mobile phones and flash lights. Nurses and post-graduate students had to use manual pumps while ventilator batteries beeped indicating low battery.
The scenes outside the ward weren’t different. Kalimuthu, 38, who had come to hospital with a fractured hand, and his attendant Yogeshwaran, 20, got stuck in a lift for 30 minutes. A team of fire and rescue personnel was rushed in to help them get out around 7.20 pm. The two who were in the second floor had got into the lift to reach the ground floor as Kalimuthu was in pain. The lift was between the first floor and second floor when it got stuck. The two panicked and started screaming for help. Being a rainy evening, darkness had engulfed the entire building and hospital staff too were clueless about the power cut as the building has generator backup. The duo struggled with their mobile phone light to get help.
However, since it was a lift with a sliding door it was difficult to catch attention. In the mean time, they suffered breathing difficulty too without air circulation. Hospital staff said the lift also has generator backup but it could not be started due to technical snag. Effort by the staff and others to help them went in vain. A distress call made by the hospital workers landed at the Tallakulam fire and rescue services station around 6.50 pm and the team managed to reach there in 10 minutes. Tallakulam station officer Pon Thirumurugan said, “The first thing we did was to dispel the fear. We got their mobile phone number and engaged one person to keep them informed about the developments and their wellbeing. Then we slowly brought down the lift to the ground floor and released the rope. Meanwhile, power supply resumed and the boys were rescued,” Pon Thirumurugan said. Fire and rescue services department personnel had made a similar rescue from the same lift a year ago.