CHENNAI: As a wailing Sunitha (18), rescued from the building crash site near Porur after being buried under the rubble for 17-long hours that was like eternity, was transported to the Sri Ramachandra University (SRU) in a 108 ambulance, the Emergency Medical Technician R Radhika worked quickly to stabilise the patient.
In under four minutes, she inserted an IV line, intubated, and secured Sunitha’s broken leg with a splint, without any cooperation from the distressed patient.
The moving vehicle makes insertion of an IV line difficult and in this case it was harder as the patient did not cooperate, said Selvakumar S, Head of State Operations, 108 Ambulance.
According to him, 11 ambulances were stationed at the site to transport the victims as and when they were rescued.
However, it was just another day at the office for Radhika as she merely shrugged it off as a routine affair. “We are trained to do this and we see such casualties all the time”, she said.
“We see different accident cases everyday, but a disaster of such magnitude is quite rare,” said K Thirugnanasambandham, the ambulance pilot, who had been on the job for over 12 hours with most part spent in anticipation of more casualties, as the rescue operation progressed.