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LIFELINE FOUNDATION (India)

Introduction

Lifeline Foundation is non-profit organization operating in Emergency Medical Services (EMS) in India. It has the pioneered and establishing per-hospital trauma care for Traffic Accidents on Indian Highways. Lifeline Foundation is very well recognized for this across the world.

The objective of Lifeline Foundation is to see that no one be allowed to die in on the Highways or Cities of India due to non availability of medical aid in time. Lifeline foundation is working to provide lifesaving medical aid to all sections of the society. It is also working to sensitize common people to intervene when they see an [[medical emergency]. Lifeline has achieved this by building a network of existing Ambulance providers, Hospitals and logistic providers. Till date Lifeline foundation has successfully build network and provides EMS services in Five Indian states.

Origins

Lifeline Foundation has its genesis in the traumatic experience encountered by Dr Subroto Das, an Ashoka Fellow, and Sushmita Das. The founder trustees of the Lifeline Foundation, India. Both had an accident on a rainy night in August 1999 on National Highway 8 (India). They were severly injured and got stranded for hours on the rainy night on lonely highways. They were lucky to be alive as one of them was medical Doctor, who could control the bleeding.

During the convalescence period, they focused their attention to evolve a system to save lives of accident victims, who might otherwise die due to lack of Emergency Medical help in time. And thus the lifeline foundation was created in 2002.

The first initiative of the Foundation was a highway rescue project between Surat and Ahmedabad on a patch National Highway 8 (India) in Gujarat. This was started July 1, 2002 with a network of 17 ambulances. Today the network spreads across five states of India with 459 ambulances.

The present activities of lifeline foundation cut across various functions in the field of Emergency Medical Services such EMS on Highways, Medical Appliances Bank, EMSIndia Journal and Training.

EMS Highways

Lifeline Foundation has established EMS Highways to provide trauma care servcies in five states of India. This is the first EMS on Highways of India. This Highway rescue project operates in five states. This is the first initiative for trauma care on highways in India. . At present it covers 4500 kms of National Highways, saves more than 1000 in a year.

This they have achieved by enrolling support of other Indian NGOs, Government agencies, Police, Private Corporates and Private Medical systems, Fuel Pumps attendants, citizens, and roadside dhaba. A control room in each of the states responds to distress calls round the clock 24X7. The Helpline number is displayed at regular interval on the highways. The landmarks, miles stones, Service providers, hospitals, logistic providers and police are mapped endogenously to create GIS. Using this indigenous GIS, accident sites and nearest service providers are located by call center. Nearest hospital is informed to receive the victim and meantime nearest available ambulance is pressed into to service. Police is informed if required, Heavy vehicle extrication equipment are mobilized to rescue victims in case required. Lifeline provides this service Free of Charge to accident victim till victim reaches hospital. The project has intervened in more than 6500 serious accidents and saved more than 6700 lives, till 2011, of seriously injured victims.

Medical Appliances Bank

The Medical Appliance bank is another initiative undertaken by lifeline Foundation provide Medical appliances to poor families free of charge. This is to free the poor from investing in Medical Appliances to be used domiciliary treatment. Generally Medical equipment purchased for domiciliary treatment become redundant, once patients is recovered and do not need them. Beneficiaries can access equipment from the Bank against a deposit and return it after utilization. Equipment returned by beneficiary is re-sterilized before lent to other beneficiary. The bank can be accessed on 24X7 helpline 6559555. The Equipments available ranges from wheelchairs to ripple beds to nebulizers.

EMSIndia

EMSIndia is India’s first indexed journal in the field of Emergency Medical Services who first bench-marked the Golden Hour. The stake holders are: Emergency Care Centers, Government’s Departments like health, Transport, Roads and Police functionaries, law makers, corporate leaders, NGOs, EMS practitioners at home and abroad and the media. Regular contributions come from the leading EMS proponents from private and government, and experts in North America and Western Europe.

Training

Lifeline gives due importance to community involvement in first aid and emergency rescue operations; Training is imparted to First Responders, to sensitizes and trains to intervene in emergencies. This way Lifeline is thriving to make the society responsible for instant response and immediate post-accident care. This is to minimize response time to reduce mortality and disabilities. It trains Industrial staff, school students, villagers and others with modules developed with UNDP.

External links

• Highwayrescue project
• EMSIndia web magazine