While the Capital made merry on the occasion of Holi,the AIIMS Trauma Centre on Thursday struggled to cope with an overload of accident cases from across the city. With no system of coordination between hospitals,many trauma victims,who were referred from other hospitals,landed up at Trauma Centre without warning. One of the patients,38-year-old Rajesh,diagnosed with a Subdural Haematoma (SDH) or brain haemorrhage after an auto-rickshaw hit his bike,was taken to West Delhis Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) Hospital around 1.30 pm on Thursday an hour after his accident. Nearly six hours later,resident doctors of DDU Hospital rushed him first to Safdarjung Hospital,as the CT scan machine in their hospital was not functioning,and then finally to AIIMS at 6.30 pm. Doctors at AIIMS have now pronounced him brain dead. DDU Hospitals Medical Superintendent was not available for comment,but the discharge summary of the patient from DDU Hospital,accessed by Newsline,reads,Patient required NCCT (Non-Contrast CT scan) which is not working in DDU Hospital and no ICU bed available. So patient transferred to higher centre for further management. The patients younger brother said,DDU hospital asked us to make calls to see if ICU beds were available in other hospitals. We wasted so much time,and now doctors at AIIMS say he is brain dead. At least three patients with severe head injuries sustained in falling from a height and road accidents were sent from Safdarjung Hospital (SJH) without an ambulance. The discharge papers of the three patients from SJH,accessed by Newsline,state,As per instructions of Dr K C Sharma,HOD,Neurosurgery,patient needs admission. So patient referred to any other government hospital for further management,as there are no consultant faculty available in Neurosurgery department of Safdarjung Hospital. Vishnu Kumar,brother of 21-year-old Raj Kumar,who was rushed to Safdarjung Hospital with head,chest,and face injuries after he fell from the terrace while playing Holi,told Newsline,We wasted about two hours at Safdarjung Hospital. They did a CT scan on my brother and told us we should go elsewhere since no doctors were present there. We took a private ambulance parked outside the hospital and paid them Rs 200 to reach AIIMS. All three patients reached AIIMS well beyond the golden hour the first two hours following a traumatic injury,during which there is the highest likelihood that prompt medical treatment will prevent death and are currently critical,doctors said. According to Dr B D Athani,Medical Superintendent at Safdarjung Hospital,We have a single-man Neurosurgery department,and our only faculty member Dr K C Sharma had to go on leave for personal reasons. We had informed the ministry and a neurosurgeon from another government hospital was allocated to us. Though he was supposed to join a week ago,he is yet to report. On the issue of not providing ambulances for the injured to be taken to AIIMS,Dr Athani blamed the load of patients. In another case,a 10-year-old girl was referred from a private hospital with internal bleeding,as her family could not afford the treatment costs. It is against the SC guidelines to refer patients without providing them emergency care because of their inability to pay. But every year,we have the same situation, said a senior professor at AIIMS. Assisted by a decontamination team from the National Disaster Response Force,Trauma Centre treated 347 patients 232 of them being medico-legal cases. Of the 25 admitted,11 needed neurosurgery,five orthopaedic surgeries and nine general surgeries. Dr M C Misra,chief of AIIMS Trauma Centre,said,Coordination between hospitals is crucial for management of cases. Patients are sent here without enquires about available facilities,and ultimately,they suffer if resources are not available.
