Your local PCO could now save your life

One could well be forgiven for momentarily confusing a nondescript PCO at Chandan nagar, on Nagar Road, with a medical unit.
Accident victims, minor or major, pour in and out seeking relief from the medically trained PCO proprietor and nearby shopkeepers.
A fully-equipped first aid box also comes very handy. This pilot project launched by the Rashtriya Life Saving Society (RLSS) aims at training shopkeepers and phone booth owners along major roads in first aid.Eventually, the RLSS hopes that all phone booths will double as first aid centres.
The objective, pioneer of the RLSS movement, Rear Admiral P Sharma, says, “Is to reduce road accident related deaths which often occur due to lack of timely treatment. If first aid is administered, depending on the nature of the injury, fatalities will be reduced. Hence, we have supplied oxygen cylinder, antiseptic solutions, pain killers and so on. These, coupled with the communication network provided by PCOs and trained personnel, will extend much-needed help to accident victims.� In India, about 85,000 people die due to road accidents every year, with Maharashtra accounting for 10 per cent of that number.
Which is why this innovative project by the RLSS assumes significance. Hospitals in Pune have also supported the project with major ones like Ruby Hall, signing on to provide the RLSS with financial and other types of aid.
While the pilot project at Nagar road is in place, sensitive accidentprone areas in Pune have been earmarked for installing these first aid posts.
The plan is to have 10 posts on Nagar Road, Solapur Road and National Highway No 4, to begin with. Vice-admiral Vinod Pasricha, who is overseeing this project says, “Besides the timely help, we wish to also educate the public about road safety regulations.� For Sharma, who witnessed an accident in Delhi in which a bus-load of children fell into the Yamuna river, this project is a dream come true. “I stood there helpless. That incident made such an impact, that I vowed to acquire, and impart, en masse, first aid skills to people,� he says.
In a recent incident, a motorcyclist was hit by a truck. The volunteers on Nagar road extracted him from the wreckage and put him on a stretcher before calling the ambulance. He was saved. A Galande is a phone booth owner on Nagar road who is part of the programme and is visibly happy about it. “I never knew I could be of such use to society. I have already helped with three accidents and the families of those victims have showered me with thanks and blessings,� he says.