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'We Are at a Saturation Point'
Rama, 55, shows a photo of his daughter Puja, an attack victim who died because she did not get prompt care.
(By Emily Wax -- The Washington Post)
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The bombings and high death tolls reveal widespread cracks in India's public health-care system, especially in smaller cities and rural areas.
In Jaipur, where near-simultaneous blasts in May killed 80 and injured 200, the main government-run medical center did not have a working blood bank. Nor were there enough workers to help with the emergency. Puddles of urine and blood collected in the halls. There were not enough beds for the victims, so many stretched out on the floors, attended by relatives. Stray dogs wandered the halls and napped under cots.
"It's simply a nightmare," said Manoj Krishna, a teary-eyed doctor who was standing outside the hospital, his lab coat stained in blood. "We can barely handle our patients as it is. We are at a saturation point. We weren't prepared for this."
India's health-care system is inequitable, despite the country's recent economic growth. More and more foreigners come for heart surgeries or hip replacements in private hospitals that offer personal rooms and butler service. But public hospitals are sometimes so strained that patients have to share beds. Many are forced to ask relatives for money so that they can shift to private hospitals for access to CT scans or dialysis machines.
India spends 1 percent of its gross domestic product on public health, far less than other countries with similar per capita incomes. The United States spends about 16 percent of its GDP on public health care.
From the new trauma ward of his New Delhi hospital, Misra said there is a lack of such centers nationwide and a pressing need for more ambulances. Paramedics also need better training, he said. He has sent teams of staff members to Israel for CPR training and for lessons in rapid emergency response to attacks.
"In Israel, even 16-year-olds know what to do to lift patients, to give first aid," said Misra, who is hosting a conference next month in New Delhi on prompt trauma care. "I think India will have to go that route if these blasts continue."
Within two years, officials in New Delhi plan to add 450 ambulances to the city's fleet and a motorcycle first-aid team, with 25 experts who will be able to weave through traffic. India's government also plans to build trauma units along highways to reduce the number of traffic deaths caused by slow emergency care.
But for many, the changes will come too late.
In a crowded ward at Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in New Delhi, Rama rested on a cot, sweating under ceiling fans. One arm was in a cast, and his legs -- which suffered shrapnel wounds in the Sept. 13 attack -- were bandaged.
Rama wept as he took out two passport-size photographs of his daughters.
One showed Puja in a sparkly sari and red lipstick. The other was of Santosh, 22, who was injured in the blast and is in a coma.
"I just wish we had gotten here sooner," he said. "Maybe Puja would be by my side."
