PUNE: A workshop on basic life support was organised at Aditya Birla Memorial Hospital (ABMH) recently for the PCMC Runners group. More than 100 members attended the workshop. They were taught practically, on how to provide early intervention if a person has a sudden cardiac arrest with the help of mannequins.

Dr Venkatesh Dhat, medical ICU in charge at Aditya Birla Memorial Hospital, said, “70 per cent of instances of cardiac arrest take place out of hospital, due to which the mortality rate is very high. If they get early intervention, the survival rates goes up. Cardiac arrest can happen to anyone, but in case of runners, if a runner is more dehydrated, then there are high chances of heart or brain attack.”

“We gave practical example to the group by using mannequins on chest compression, airway therapy and early shock treatment. The programme was inaugurated by Rekha Dubey, Chief Executive Officer of ABMH, along with other doctors from critical care including Dr Sonali, Dr Poonam, Dr Jainab, Dr Gaurav and Dr Rahul.”

Amit Kulkarni, a member of the group, said, “We had approached Aditya Birla Memorial Hospital (ABMH) to teach us the preliminary treatment to be given for any person who has a cardiac arrest. Some unknown facts were discussed with us. Also, we were given practical examples on how to deal in such conditions. We are planning to take such workshops once in six months for more awareness on it.”