Medical assistants get training in basic life support

AURANGABAD: Most people who experience heart attack die because they do not recieve immediate CPR. To equipp people with the basic training to perform an emergency CPR, around 70 assistants rendering services in operation theatres were given hands on training at a basic life support (BLS) training workshop organized by the Aurangabad chapter of the Indian Society of Anaesthesiology (ISA) in MGM Medical College on Sunday.
"The basic objective of the programme was to educate people about giving CPR to a person who is having a cardiac arrest without getting baffled and also calling for immediate medical assistance.This workshop will train the person to render all help personally till an ambulance arrives," said Dilip Deshmukh, conference organising chairman.
"Under the BLS programme, people are first taught to recognise and respond to life-threatening emergencies such as cardiac and respiratory arrest, besides choking (foreign body airway obstruction). After the hands-only CPR training a person can help anybody who collapses by pressing hard and fast in the centre of the chest to help the heart beat to the tune of 100 to 120 beats per minute. Immediate CPR can double or even triple a person's chance of survival until he/she reaches the hospital," he said.
Around 70 operation theatre assistants were provided hands-on training on how to deal with most medical emergencies. "The basic idea is to save valuable time till medical help reaches the affected person," he said, adding that everybody, including school-going students can learn the course.
The branch pledged to create more awareness on BLS by conducting at least two workshops every month in all cities to reach out to the masses.
The ISA Satara branch was awarded on the occassion for its outstanding work in public awareness. The team had carried over 100 BLS workshops in the last six months.