BS RAWAT
NEW DELHI : A patient, treated by the staff under mission Delhi, says “Just rang up at 14:43 and within 10 minutes they were here in our Hauz Khas apartment with kits. We were all surprised and amazed with the prompt and wonderful service by the trained medical people at our house. We are very appreciative and thank those who thought of this initiative”

On receiving a call at Mission Delhi’s Toll – Free Emergency Helpline numbers (1800111044 and 14430), the mobile medical nurse team is dispatched immediately for examining the patient, providing necessary medication/CPR and transmitting ECG to consultant at AIIMS.

“Our motorcycle ambulance systems move easily through traffic jams and offer timely and quality care, led by consultants at AIIMS, to patients at their residence itself,” explained Dr Praveen Aggarwal from Department of Emergency Medicine at AIIMS.

Dr Aggarwal stated, “In the Initial hours, clot busters can restore the blood flow to the heart and stop damage to heart tissue. If done within a stipulated time of 30 minutes, complete recovery is possible.”

“The heart is like a motor that pumps blood to the entire body as well as to walls of heart through 3 pipes (coronary arteries). If any of these pipes is blocked by a blood clot, the heart tissue beyond that area dies,” said  Dr Aggarwal.

“We need to save precious lives by increasing awareness regarding STEMI Heart Attack symptoms and reaching the patients at the earliest,” says Dr Ramakrishnan, a leading cardiologist at AIIMS, New Delhi.

STEMI Heart attack is an acute, high risk, time sensitive, life threatening disease. The management of STEMI heart attack patient requires treatment to be started within the golden hour (90 minutes) of the onset of symptoms and providing clot buster therapy to patient within 30 minutes of reaching the hospital. Delay in reaching the hospital and initiation of clot buster therapy are the major causes of death in STEMI Heart Attack patients.

The pilot project caters to an area of approximately 30 sq km around AIIMS with a population of around 7 to 8 lakh.

The project is planned to be scaled up to other parts of Delhi/India once the pilot study is completed. Till date, since the launch 79 days ago, 15 cases have been attended under Mission Delhi programme.