The prudence of two ambulance drivers resulted in saving the life of an 11-year-old boy who was injured in a road accident on Thursday.
A family of three -- a couple and their son -- was returning to Puttur by a two-wheeler from Chennai, when it had a brush with another motorbike which tried to cross the road at a petrol pump at Narayanavanam Cross, 5 km from Puttur. The impact left the boy grievously injured and a middle-aged local man of the other motorbike losing a couple of teeth.
The profusely bleeding boy fell unconscious on the road, while the two sides indulged in wordy duel. The passers-by and the roadside vendors rushed to the spot. Within ten minutes, ‘108’ ambulance from Government Hospital at Puttur reached the spot, and picked up the boy. It hardly travelled 200 meters when it broke down due to puncture in the rear wheel. Seeing the vehicle down with puncture, parents start wailing and once again the crowds in the surroundings rushed to the spot.
Oxygen support
Its driver, T. Shanmugam, contacted the driver of an ambulance at the Primary Health Centre at Narayanavanam mandal headquarters, just three km away. The ambulance from there came to the spot in a couple of minutes. The boy was shifted to the second vehicle with its life support system. Before the boy could reach the Government Hospital at Puttur, he was given oxygen support, and first aid for head injury. In another 10 minutes, the boy was at the referral hospital. After attending on the boy, the duty doctors said that he was brought to the hospital at right time, and they could tackle the blood loss.
Ambulance driver of Narayanavanam unit, Rajan, said that when he got the call from his Puttur counterpart, he was very much on the wheel to proceed towards a nearby village to attend an emergency case. “In two minutes, our vehicle reached the spot of the breakdown ambulance,” he said.
The boy’s father, Krishnaiah, a goat herder, and native of Guddikandriga village of Narayanavanam mandal nearby, said he was thankful to the drivers.
