Need of Trained Emergency Medical Technicians

Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) are trained healthcare professionals providing basic as well as advanced lifesaving procedures and pre-hospital care during an emergency.

They are an integral part of the healthcare system and associated with the emergency response management team of the city, especially the ambulance services and fire-fighting team.

These ambulance technicians are trained-healthcare professionals operating as part of an emergency medical service and provide preliminary care to the patients experiencing a severe injury or illness resulting in an emergency.

They work mobile and reach the emergency spot over a call with an ambulance since they often perform their duties out of an ambulance. EMTs may also act as a liaison between the patient and hospitals to ensure they receive essential treatment at the facility center.

Although EMTs work closely with ambulances services, they should not be mistaken for ambulance drivers or attendants. The government, as well as private ambulance service providers like Medulance have their own team of EMTs working actively in case of an emergency.

Why are EMTs important?

EMTs respond to emergency calls to provide efficient and immediate facility and care at the emergency scene and transport the critically ill or injured person to a nearby medical facility for advanced treatment of the patient. Here are some of the most common medical tasks performed by an EMT at the emergency spot:

  • They provide life-saving medical care at the emergency site and transport patients to hospitals where they can receive adequate medical treatment.
  • They ensure that patients who’re in a remote or far away place from basic medical facilities receive essential treatment soon in order to survive critical injury or ill-health.
  • Mostly, these clinicians work as volunteers at hospitals, and fire departments alongside other trained professionals.
  • EMTs act as intermediaries for patients dealing with medical emergencies and hospitals.

Apart from the above-mentioned tasks, EMTs also perform the following functions such as:

  • Providing first aid
  • Applying splints
  • Performing basic airway management treatment
  • Conducting basic treatment such as checking pulsation, recording blood pressure, etc.
  • Performing CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation)
  • Using AEDs (automated external defibrillators)
  • Supplying basic medications to the patient such as aspirin, glucose, etc.
  • Monitoring patient’s vital behavior

Bottomline:

EMT’s are among those individuals who responsibly save thousands of lives every year by resolving the medical emergency or prolonging a patients life. Companies like Medulance  provide advanced mobile medical teams around local neighborhoods with trained medical practitioners such as paramedics, and EMTs to administer professional medical care when it is needed the most. Alongside trained individuals, these ambulances are also stacked with full of life-saving medical equipment.

How air ambulance services work in India?

The ambulance services have been broadly classified into air ambulance, ground ambulance, and also water ambulance services. Air ambulance contributes the highest revenue in the ambulance service market. The rise of medical tourism in developing countries like India has driven the growth of the air ambulance segment.

What is an Air Ambulance?

An air ambulance is a specially designed helicopter, or an aircraft, equipped with specialized medical equipment including medications, ventilators, ECGs and monitoring units, CPR equipment, and stretchers. This aircraft airlifts and transport injured people or critical patients for medical treatment to the hospitals. Air ambulances are booked when the patient is located either in remote or terrain locations where advanced medical treatment is not available. Air ambulance in Delhi by Medulance is usually staffed with doctors, highly trained paramedics individuals, and first responders. Further, when an air ambulance is actively operating with a patient, Air Traffic Control (ATC) grants special treatment to them. Some air ambulances can be non-medically equipped too and the attendant staff simply transports patients from point A to point B.

State of Air Ambulance in India:

In India, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is the authorizing body when it comes to air ambulance service regulations and provide license and/or accreditation to the air ambulance service providers. Major hospitals have been tying up with airlines companies and the Government to create better and more effective air ambulance services in India.

Demand for Air Ambulance Service in India:

In recent times, there has been a growing demand for air ambulance services in India. With growing awareness about organ donation in the country such as donating the heart of brain-dead patients and transplantation of such organs, the air ambulance has been used on multiple occasions. This rising demand for emergency ambulance services in India is attracting many international companies and various startups are also emerging such as Medulance, to render the air ambulance service in Delhi and in the rest of the country.

Further, with higher demand and use of advanced technologies by the Indian hospitals, medical tourism have seen an upward slope in demand graph. Favorable reimbursement policies and the increasing trend of home health care have fueled the growth of this market.

As per the industry report of India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) on Healthcare sector published in 2017, medical tourism market in India stands at US$ 3.0 billion in size and is expected to reach US$ 6 billion by 2018. During 2013-16, the country’s medical tourism market witnessed a growth at a CAGR of 27 percent. The number of foreign tourists coming to India for medical purposes rose by almost 50 percent to 201,333 in 2016 from 134,344 in 2015.

More on, due to lifestyle, and behavioral changes and rising healthcare awareness in Indian citizens, prime hospital chains such as Apollo, Fortis, and Max, are operating their own air ambulance services, especially in tier I and tier II cities like Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore.

In conclusion, saving time for our friends and family is the first step in an emergency situation. Medulance’s Air Ambulance service in India aims to conquer time and distance in emergencies and saves lives of your loved ones.

Is this a wake-up call for India to have first responders?

You get down at the metro station, started walking to your office space, and all of a sudden, a fiery accident happened in front of your eyes. Panicked! You with other people surrounding the incident rushed towards the victims and out of panic, most of you would get confused about what to do or what not to do. Only 2-3 out of 50 people mob will strike and call for an ambulance or call an emergency medical service (EMS). As cited in Hindustan Times, a recent study conducted by Emergency Management and Research Institute (EMRI), an estimated 300,000 emergency cases, medical and non-medical, are recorded in the country every day, with 80% of these being medical, and 9.5% of the population being affected by an emergency annually.

It’s quite visible that being a first responder is the need of the state. Let’s discuss here who the first responder is and how you can be one of them.

Who exactly is a first responder?
The first responder is a trained individual who in an emergency, both medical and non-medical make sure that immediate support services are being offered to the needy until an ambulance arrives.
These are the person with specialized training and among the first to arrive and provide assistance at the scene of an emergency, such as an accident, natural disaster, or even a terrorist attack.

First responders typically include police officers, firefighters, paramedics, and other trained individuals and volunteers connected with some organizations providing emergency services. These individuals strive to provide basic medical care to a patient and help the people out in an emergency to access basic and first aid treatment in an instant.

How to become a First Responder?
First Responder is a higher level of training, which usually takes 40 hours. The training is significantly more extensive than basic first aid. To be a certified first responder to provide pre-hospital care, an individual needs to undergo certification programs which are usually conducted at prime and private medical institutes and hospitals. These institutes conduct first responder and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training programs.  Whereas there’s a CERT training which will prepare you to help respond to area crises where first-responders are too busy to handle everything.

Roles of a first responder
Roles of a first responder can be providing first aid, CPR, manual stabilization of fractures, and assisting in the administration of basic medications such as auto-injectors, oral glucose, inhalers, preliminary medications, etc. They’ll immediately provide basic life-saving aid before any advanced life support arrives. Also, if any patient receives medical attention within first one hour of the incident or initiation of medical illness, which is considered to be crucial for the diagnosis of the patient, the outcome would be much better for the patient. In medical terms, this period is addressed as Golden Hour.

As mentioned, first responders are trained to tackle emergency situations. Although the types of emergencies will differ on a case-to-case basis, there is a similar pattern in their approach:

  • Taking command or being in charge of the accident scene.
  • They detect the presence of hazards and begin to identify them.
  • They begin to remove, evacuate, and separate otherwise property from the body of the personnel.
  • They will conduct first aid and perform necessary diagnoses such as checking up for a pulse, blood pressure, applying glucose, etc. in case an individual is unconscious.
  • Further, they will look for an individual’s identity, and start searching for identity cards, mobile phones or other electronic devices, tags on their baggage, wallet, and so on.
  • They seek additional resources as needed from the vicinity.

While the first responder performs this operation, he will ask nearby individuals to accompany him for help and request them to call for advanced medical support, book an ambulance, and likewise.

Bottomline
Although basic first aid is great and always helpful, the first responder is one level up. Entities like Medulance has a team of trained and skilled individuals including first responders who attend the emergencies with urgent priority, especially to the one who book ambulance in Delhi and nearby areas. It would be great if more youths and citizens get themselves certified as First Responders, and be available responsibly in such events.

How to know if a person is suffering from a heart attack?

When does a heart attack occur?

A heart attack, or Myocardial infarction (MI), occurs when an artery that carries blood and oxygen to the heart is completely blocked. When this happens, the heart muscle cell becomes starved of oxygen and nutrients and the cells begin to die, damaging the heart. The damage can happen within minutes. But it can be lessened if the patient seeks emergency treatment right away. This happens because plaque (made up of fat, cholesterol, and other substances) narrows the arteries carrying oxygen-rich blood to the heart. This slow process is known as atherosclerosis. When a plaque in a heart artery breaks, a blood clot forms around the plaque. This blood clot can block the blood flow to the heart muscle. When the heart muscle is starved of oxygen and nutrients, it is called ischemia. Ischemia causes damage to the heart muscle which is eventually called a heart attack or myocardial infarction (MI).

Common myths attached to heart attack:

  • Heart failure means stopping the heartbeat
  • Every Chest pain is a heart attack
  • No cholesterol problems until you’re middle-aged
  • Heart failure and heart attacks are one and the same

Common warning signs of a heart attack:

Don’t wait to get help if you experience any of these heart attack warning signs. Symptoms of a heart attack can vary from person to person.  Although some heart attacks are sudden and intense, most start slowly, with mild pain or discomfort. Pay attention to your body — and asked the nearby person to book an ambulance for immediate help. Here are some of the commonly observed signs of a heart attack:

  • Most heart attacks involve discomfort in the chest that lasts more than a few minutes, or that goes away and comes back. It can feel like pressure, squeezing, or fullness.
  • The pain is most often in the center of the chest. It may also be felt in the upper body such as the neck, lower jaw, back, arms (especially the right one), and upper abdomen.
  • Shortness of breath with or without chest discomfort.
  • Cold Sweating, Nausea, or vomiting
  • Dizziness or lightheadedness
  • Changes in mental status, weakness, or fatigue, especially in older adults. (Most common in women)

First-aid first:

If you find any of the above symptoms in someone near you, call medulance immediately for easier and faster transportation to the hospital. Using simple location-based mapping, medulance  seeks to provide you with quality ambulance services in Delhi that are easier, faster, and quicker than anyone else. Meanwhile, follow the below-mentioned steps as a part of the first aid:

  • Make sure the person is in a comfortable position (sitting down on the floor, leaning against a wall or chair), and try to keep calm.
  • Loosen up any tight clothing of the patient.
  • Try to ask if the person is on any medication for chest pains, such as nitroglycerin, for a known heart condition, and help them take it.

Heart Attack recovery process:

While the majority of people survive their first heart attack, there are some essential lifestyle changes that one should adopt. Here are some common treatments and practices you should follow during the recovery stage apart from medications:

  • Treatments for heart attack patients include medications, lifestyle changes and, in some cases, surgical procedures.
  • Rest is important after a heart attack, but it’s just as important for you to participate in recreation and begin making physical exercise a part of your daily routine. A good night’s rest is especially important for heart attack patients. Proper and timely rest becomes important for heart patients.
  • Once you’ve had a heart attack, you’re at higher risk for another one. If you’re having any chest pains, visit your doctor.
  • There are exercises and medications that can help ease or prevent the pain.
  • Avoid eating tobacco, and smoking
  • Ensure regular physical activity and good nutrition for a healthy heart.

A healthy diet, and making changes in your lifestyle would work in longevity and are some of the most important things you can do to prevent heart attack and heart disease.