SRINAGAR: Ghulam Muhammad Kundroo, a resident of Harwan Srinagar, on his way home from Jammu suffered a heart attack when the Tavera cab he was travelling in, reached near Kud on Srinagar-Jammu highway Wednesday afternoon.
Kundroo’s wife accompanying him along with some co-passengers immediately rushed him to nearby Sher-e-Kashmir Memorial Hospital, Batote. Doctors there advised he be rushed to SKIMS, Srinagar as his condition was not stable and they had no specialised facilities available there for such cases. All they could do is offer him an aspirin, a passenger accompanying the patient said.
“Given that the highway was clogged with traffic as it was reopened after two days of closure following landslides at many places and seeing the deteriorating condition of Kundroo (62), we requested for an ambulance. However, the two ambulances available at the Hospital, according to the officials there, were not in condition to ferry him to Srinagar, some two hundred kilometres away,” Muhammad Sajad Ahmad, one of the co-passengers said.
Caught in a bind, passengers rang up Kashmir Observer for help.
Kashmir Observer instantly got in touch with Director Health Services Kashmir and Deputy Commissioner Ramban. By the time officials reached the passengers accompanying the patient, they had started for Srinagar on their own. However, long traffic jams hampered their onward journey.
After being contacted by DHSK, Director Health Services, Jammu Dr Gurjeet Singh Soodan, acted promptly and alerted health officials in Ramban who made an ambulance ready by the time patient reached there. “It took us four long hours to reach Ramban as there were long traffic jams along the whole track”, Muhammad Sajad said.
Kundroo was promptly rushed to Srinagar in the ambulance from Ramban and was recovering at SKIMS when reports last came in Wednesday night.
Pertinently, no specialised facilities are available for such emergency cases anywhere along the 300 km highway despite the fact that thousands of people travel on it daily.
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