Ambulance driver Thamim drove 508 km in just six hours and 45 minutes on Wednesday night to save the life of a 31-day-old baby girl who required urgent heart surgery.
On a normal day, the journey would have easily taken 10 to 14 hours depending on traffic.
Thamim’s driving skills and presence of mind, combined with the right support from Kerala police as well as civil society, helped shift a baby in need of immediate surgery.
The 31-day-old baby, Fathima Laiba, admitted at Pariyaram Medical College, Kannur, needed urgent heart surgery and her family got an appointment at Sri Chitra Tirunal Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology (SCT), Thiruvananthapuram for the next day.
Except, the destination was over 500 km away from Pariyaram.
The ambulance, with the registration number KL 14 L 4247, was called from Kasargod and started the journey at 08:23 pm from Pariyaram.
Not just Thamim and the police, the public too geared up to make a success of this delicate mission. The trip was supported by the organisation ‘Child Protect Team’, and members of the public on social media spread the word far and wide about clearing the path for the ambulance’s passage through Kerala’s narrow roads.
Kerala Police made an appeal to the public to co-operate with the effort and avoid any obstruction on the ambulance’s route. Facebook messages helped people avoid obstructing the roads through which the ambulance would pass through.
With a police pilot, an ambulance ICU and two Innova cars of the highway police team escorting the ambulance from Kannur, things became smoother.
According to the Indian Express, Child Protect Team gave out the location of the ambulance through Whatsapp and facebook using the GPS connected to the vehicle.
Speeding through cleared roads in an effort for which seemingly scores of people of the state of Kerala joined hands, the ambulance was able to reach its destination in record time of six hours and 45 minutes. The only stop made was for food and fuel at Kozhikode for 20 minutes.
The ambulance reached the Sri Chitra Tirunal Institute by 3:23 am on Thursday without any hassles.
The baby is still in critical condition in SCT, Thiruvananthapuram, hanging on the hope of the parents and society that came together to help save her.
‘Traffic’, the 2011 Malayalam film by Rajesh Pillai was based on a similar premise. In the film, actor Srinivasan, who played a traffic constable, transports the heart of a boy who had just died across 150 km in under two hours to a 14-year-old girl waiting for a transplant.
Sudevan (Srinivasan) covered 150 km in two hours in the film (which was loosely based on a real-life incident), while Thamim, in a gritty real life incident, covered over 500 km in just 6 hours 45 minutes for the sake of a critical infant.