AWARD: CMC & Hospital wins the National Award in Trauma Care

Ludhiana, November 10, 2012: In recognition of the meritorious and outstanding services in trauma care, CMC Ludhiana has been given the National Award by the Life Line Foundation and American Academy of Emergency Medicine India in its 14th National Conference on 5th November 2012 held at New Delhi.

The award was presented by the President of AAEMI (American Academy of Emergency Medicine India), Dr. Anita Bhavnani. Professor Dr. Valsa Verghese, In-charge Emergency Medical Services, and Goodwin of the Trauma Care Services (Amars) of CMC, Ludhiana received the award on behalf of the institution. It may be noted that the Trauma Care Services is headed by Megha Beatrice and is supervised by the Medical Superintendent, Dr. Kanwal Masih, alongwith Dr. Valsa Verghese.

CMC has been in the forefront of providing excellent trauma services for the past four decades, having pioneered in the state-of-art Neurosurgery, Thoracic and Vascular Surgery, Orthopaedics and General Surgical care. This is in addition to other emergency care in the field of Cardiology, Medicine, Paediatrics and Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

CMC was the pioneer in establishing organised care in attending to mass casualties where the doctors and nurses along with the other paramedical staff looked after influx of many patients with trauma at a time. This was very much witnessed by all in the 1980s and 90s. The protocol established by CMC in which doctors nurses were available on call within 5-10 minutes to attend even to over 100 patients at a time, became a pattern for others to follow.

Further, in the year 2003 these services were organised under the term ‘AMARS’- Ambulance, Motorbike and Rescue Services, Why motorbike? The old part of the Ludhiana city has lot of narrow lanes (gullies) where ambulances cannot reach immediately due to congestion. Hence the paramedical team trained by experts in the field was sent to the site on motorbikes followed by ambulance to rescue the patients to the nearby major hospitals. This training of paramedics was organised by a paramedical instructor from Surrey Ambulance Services of UK. Since then, over 20 paramedics have been trained in the art of attending to a victim of trauma. It is well known that the first aid given in the initial period (golden hour) can save lot of patients by providing respiratory and cardiac care, in addition to splinting of fractured limb or spine. CMC has had collaborative work in this area from the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, Australia and the facilities have been taught to many doctors from Punjab and the adjacent regions. With the full support of Dr. Abraham Thomas, Director, CMC, AMARS aspires to reach new heights.