A FEW WEEKS ago, when 27-year-old Bilal Ahmad Chopan, a labourer from Banihal in J&K, was rushed to the local hospital with severe chest pain, doctors quickly conducted an ECG, which confirmed that the patient had suffered a heart attack.
“Without wasting any time, I uploaded the ECG on our real-time network. Doctors and senior cardiologists advised me to go for thrombolysis (using medication to dissolve clots in the blood vessels). I acted immediately and we saved the life of the patient… In such emergencies, the crucial first hour is the golden hour,” says Dr Auqib Najam from the sub-district hospital in Ramban district.
“After providing basic treatment, Chopan was referred to Srinagar’s Sher-I-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) where stenting was done,” says Najam, referring to the use of a stent to keep the patient’s arteries open.
Chopan is among hundreds of patients whose lives have been saved by doctors posted in remote areas of the valley under Save Hearts Initiative launched by the Directorate of Health Services, Kashmir, last December.
Read more of this encouraging report by Adil Akzher published in The Indian Express.....
