Over 80 percent of people who suffer accidental headinjuries in Kashmir get medical intervention after the loss of “golden hour”,which lessens their chances of survival, a latest study by Sher-e-KashmirInstitute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) has revealed.
The neurosurgery department of SKIMS has compiled the studyregarding the head trauma, involving at least 1153 head injury cases, which reportedat the Institute, between November 2017 and October 2018.
The study revealed that 80.70 percent of the total cases hadreached the hospital after loss of the golden hour, the first hour afterreceiving trauma, which is considered to be very critical. “This depicts thepoor pre-hospital management and slow transportation of these injured,potentially salvageable patients to the referral centers,” the researchersdeduced.
Most of these injuries are caused in road accidents (50.3percent) while falls from height was another cause of injury to another 28percent, according to the study carried out by Dr Irfan Hussain.
Head department of neurosurgery at SKIMS, Prof Altaf URamzan, who co-guided the study along with Dr Nayil Khursheed, said thatsurvival chances of people injured in road accidents decreases considerablywith delay in reaching the hospital and with the “dangerous manner” in whichpeople transport the injured.
“There is a protocol that needs to be followed while liftingand transporting an injured person,” he said adding that often the wrong mannerof transporting and lifting injured individual results in worsening the injuryoutcomes.
While explaining he said that many people injured on roadshave an unstable spine injury or a compromised airway, which if not addressedby a trained professional immediately, could lead to death or lifelongdisability.
An efficient and fast ambulance service, he hoped, couldhelp in saving lives. “Definitely, if a person, trained in basic life supportis able to reach an injured person immediately, and provide intervention neededat that time, it could save a person’s life,” he said.
He added that in addition to improving patient transportservices, there was a need to improve trauma care services in hospitals aswell.
Recently, the state government, after years of failure tomake 108 ambulance service operational, decided to outsource it. This fleet 120ambulances announced in 2012 is meant to provide safe, round-the-clock andprompt transport of those injured in road accidents through a control room andGPS fitted vehicles.
However, for years, in a state where injuries are theleading cause of death and disability in the young (15-39 years), according toIndian Council of Medical Research data, no efforts have been made to reducethe time between injury and medical help.