CHENNAI: Inadequacies at courts when it comes to medical emergencies came to light on Wednesday when an advocate suffered a seizure in the courtroom and there was no ambulance in the campus to rush him to hospital. After a delay of 10-15 minutes, the advocate was finally sent to a hospital in a police vehicle.
Advocate Nagapandian, sitting with his client, Sathish, at the first principal court around 2 pm awaiting a divorce hearing, suddenly collapsed to the ground. Other litigants, lawyers and court staff rushed to help him but could do little as he started to have a seizure. Witnesses including the police in the court frantically called the ambulance but were getting no response.
Cops said a 108 ambulance van usually parked in the campus was apparently not there on Wednesday. “We were waiting for 10-15 minutes and when there was no response from the ambulance that’s when we feared that something worse might happen. So we called in the police car,” said a police woman, who was stationed at the court.
Since the stretcher arrived a bit too late the advocate’s colleagues and clients managed to carry him to the car and rushed to the nearby Rajiv Gandhi Government Hospital.
Some of the advocates who witnessed the incident were angry that there was no ambulance in place. “The court timings are 10.30 am to 1 pm, these rules should be made strict so that the advocates and the judges can at least eat their food on time. Some of us will have diabetes or BP and as such need to eat on time. When we are not able to take care of ourselves only these things happen,” said Advocate R Y G Williams, a family court advocate.
He added that recently a female advocate had fainted, but CISF personnel had stopped her from being carried outside. “We were holding a woman who had collapsed and the security men wanted to ensure whether she was in fact sick and insisted on a security check,” he alleged.