KOCHI: A man lay on the road in a critical state, gasping for breath, when a doctor in plain clothes stepped in and performed a life-saving intervention — making a small incision in the man’s neck with a blade and inserting a soft-drink straw into the windpipe to restore breathing. This was not a scene from the Kollywood film ‘Mersal,’ starring Vijay, but a real-life rescue following a near fatal road accident near Valiyakulam in Udayamperoor, Kochi.
The dramatic rescue was led by Dr Manoop Bhasi, an assistant professor of cardiovascular and thoracic surgery, who was passing through the area, with assistance from Dr Thomas Peter and Dr Didiya K Thomas of the Kadavanthra Indira Gandhi Cooperative Hospital, who stopped by after witnessing the accident.
“The incident occurred around 8.30 pm on Sunday, when two two-wheelers collided head-on. One of the victims, Linu, a native of Kollam, sustained serious injuries, while Vipin and Manu, both natives of Ernakulam, also suffered injuries,” said a police officer from the Udayamperoor police station.
Dr Manoop, a native of Mavelikkara, said he was returning to Kottayam Medical College after taking part in a cycling race connected to the Kochi Carnival earlier that morning. When he reached the Valiyakulam area, he noticed a crowd on the road. Seeing three people lying injured on the road, he stopped his car and rushed to help. “In trauma management, patients are categorised into colour-coded triage groups such as red, yellow and green. In my initial assessment, I found that Linu fell in the ‘red’ category, indicating life-threatening injuries.
As a doctor, my only thought at that moment was to prevent him from going into cardiac arrest and to do whatever I could to buy time until definitive hospital care was available,” he said. At that time, after sustaining fractures to the neck, face and teeth, Linu was suffering from severe airway obstruction. With the help of the police and local residents, we managed to get a shaving razor.
Using it, I made a small incision of about 2–3 cm in the ‘cricothyroid membrane’ of his neck and inserted a soft-drink straw into the windpipe to restore his breathing until the ambulance arrived. I then accompanied the patient in the ambulance to the hospital, while Dr Thomas and Dr Didiya assisted in providing care to the other two injured persons, he said.
“The local people and police arranged everything we needed, including flashlights, cooperated fully, and respected our request not to record the procedure. Though only post-MBBS doctors, Thomas and Didiya were well trained and took the lead on the ground. The ambulance drivers, Althaf and Anees, and the entire medical team at Wellcare Hospital also played a proactive role in saving a life,” Manoop said. Linu’s condition remains critical.