Delhi Police creates 'green corridor' for live heart passage from airport to hospital

The Delhi Traffic Police on Thursday played an instrumental role in providing a green corridor to a human heart after it received an emergent request from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in which it was informed that a human heart under VAD (Ventricular Assist Device) is being flown from Vadodara to Delhi for a heart transplant surgery by a flight at 2:30 pm at Terminal 2 of IGI airpot for which a fast-moving green corridor is required from T-2 to AIIMS to avoid wastage of time.

Police swung into action and immediately deputed officers and a green corridor for the passage of ambulance carrying the 'live heart' were planned. The traffic inspectors piloted the ambulance throughout the route of 18.5 km from T-2 to AIIMS. It took 12 minutes for the heart to reach the destination, which would have otherwise taken anything between 35 and 40 minutes.

"This is the least anyone can do to save a precious life," said Joint CP, Traffic, Manish Kumar Agrawal.

The heart transplant saved the life of 20-year-old critically ill youth at AIIMS.

"The boy's heart had stopped functioning for which he had to undergo an urgent transplant. We arranged the heart of a 16-year-old brain dead patient in Vadodara which was flown to Delhi immediately and was transported in a very short time from the airport to AIIMS," an AIIMS spokesperson informed.

The boy underwent the transplant and has been saved, the spokesperson added.

The AIIMS officials also said that credit for this life-saving operation also goes to the Delhi Police whose pro-activeness enabled the live heart to reach the hospital on time. Source: https://southasiamonitor.org/

Read More........ → December 26, 2020

Delhi virus cases dip but more states impose curbs

Agencies/ New Delhi recorded fewer than 1,000 coronavirus cases for the first time in seven weeks yesterday, even as more states imposed restrictions to halt the spread of the pandemic.

India last week became the third country after the United States and Brazil to hit 1mn cases but many experts say that with testing rates low, the true number could be much higher.

More than 28,000 people have died, with Maharashtra, home to Mumbai and its teeming slums, suffering the highest death toll followed by the national capital and Tamil Nadu.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government imposed one of the world’s strictest lockdowns in late March, but it has been steadily eased in recent months to lessen the devastating economic impact.

But, independently from the federal government, individual states have been tightening restrictions as case numbers have soared – including in Bengaluru, Bihar and parts of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

On Monday authorities in West Bengal, home to about 90mn people, imposed a strict lockdown two days a week beginning tomorrow.

“The state government feels that the efforts to break the chain of Covid-19 spread have to be initiated in a strong manner,” the state’s home secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay said.

All government and private offices will be closed and there will be no public transport.

Private vehicles will be allowed for essential needs only.

The small northeastern state of Sikkim, bordering Tibet, on Monday also ordered a lockdown until July 27.

Delhi has offered a rare piece of good news, however, with the crisis easing since June, when hospitals and morgues in the sprawling megacity appeared close to collapse.

Monday’s count of 954 new infections in the city marked the first time the daily tally was under 1,000 in 49 days, and was down from a peak of almost 4,000 in late June.

A study testing antibodies of a random sample of people in the national capital published yesterday showed almost one in four people in the city have been infected with the coronavirus, 

According to the result of the survey, 23.48% of the 21,387 people whose blood samples were tested had Covid-19 antibodies, a government statement said.

The study, which was conducted by the National Centre for Disease Control, showed that the infection rate in New Delhi was much higher than the number of confirmed cases indicated.

For a city with an approximate population of 20mn, the total number of cases at a 23.4% rate should stand around 4.7mn.

But Delhi currently has a total of 123,747 cases, less than 1% of its population.

The government said the difference indicated that a “large number of infected persons remain asymptomatic” and commended “proactive efforts” like lockdown measures to prevent the spread of infection.

As only 23.48% of people were affected in Delhi six months into the epidemic, a significant proportion of the population remained vulnerable and containment and preventive measures needed to continue with the same vigour, the government added. Source: https://www.gulf-times.com/

Read More........ → July 22, 2020

Covid-positive journalist jumps to death from hospital

• IANS/New Delhi: A 37-year-old journalist, who had tested positive for the coronavirus, jumped to death from the fourth floor of Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences yesterday, officials said.
• He died at 3.35pm, nearly one-and-a-half hour after jumping from the hospital’s trauma centre .
• The journalist was admitted to the Covid ward of the trauma centre on June 24 after he had tested positive for the virus.
• Hospital authorities said he was making significant progress and had planned to shift him to the general ward yesterday.
• According to an AIIMS statement, the journalist ran from Ward No 1 of the trauma centre to the fourth floor, broke the windowpane and jumped.
• The hospital said the attendants tried to stop him.
• “He was immediately moved to the trauma centre’s ICU where he was intubated, and resuscitation was tried, but unfortunately he succumbed to his injuries,” the statement said.
• The hospital also said that the journalist bouts of hallucination during the treatment and said it could have been because of a brain surgery he had in March.
• He is survived by his wife and two children.
• He was a principal correspondent of a leading Hindi daily and used to cover health and civic bodies in Delhi.
• Meanwhile, a Goa police constable who recovered from Covid-19 and rejoined duty at Mormugao police station was given a hero’s welcome yesterday.
• Director General of Police Mukesh Kumar Meena tweeted a short video of Manjunath Yaragatti being given a guard of honour by his colleagues, who also showered marigold petals.
• “PC Manjunath Yaragatti returns to a warm welcome by his colleagues at PS Mormugao. He has recovered from Covid and is as fit as always. Remember, we are fighting the disease not the infected,” Meena tweeted.
• Nearly 50 police personnel, including around 30 from the Ponda police station in South Goa district alone, have tested positive for Covid-19.
• l Former Tamil Nadu minister and senior All India Anna dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader B Valarmathi yesterday tested positive for the coronavirus infection and has been admitted to a private hospital in Chennai, an official said.
• Valarmathi is the chairman of the Tamil Nadu Textbook and Educational Services Corp and AIADMK’s literary wing secretary.
• According to a hospital official, Valarmathi’s condition is stable.
• She is the sixth AIADMK leader to be infected with the coronavirus.
• Earlier, five lawmakers, including Higher Education Minister K P Anbalagan had tested positive for the virus.
• l Veteran Karnataka Congress leader B Janardhana Poojary tested positive for the coronavirus. 
• “Poorjary, 83, is under treatment at a private hospital in Mangaluru after he tested positive for Covid on Sunday,” party leader Ravi Gowda told IANS.
• Mangaluru is about 360km west of Bengaluru.
• “Poojary is better and responding to treatment. Specialist doctors are attending on him in view of his advanced age,” Gowda said.
• Poojary’s son J Santhosh said his father’s condition was stable and there was no cause for worry as he was asymptomatic.
• According to party sources, Poojary seems to have contracted the infection from his daughter-in-law, who tested positive for the virus recently.
• Poojary was former federal minister of state for finance in the Indira Gandhi government from 1982-84 and the Rajiv Gandhi government from 1984-87.
• He was also the federal minister for rural development from 1987-89 in the Congress government.  Source: https://www.gulf-times.com/

Read More........ → July 07, 2020