Arts
Not just studies, but saving lives too
From left: The Vice President of the Ananda College Old Boys’ Association, Dushmantha Karannagoda; the President of the OAMG, Prof. Athula Kaluarachchi; the Director-General of Health Services, Dr. Palitha Mahipala; the Principal of Ananda College, S.M. Keerthirathne and the Director of the National Hospital of Sri Lanka, Dr. Anil Jasinghe. Pix by Indika Handuwala
There is a rush and several schoolchildren gather around ‘someone’ who is sprawled on the ground. Shouts follow that the victim is not breathing and calls to get the Medical Centre personnel.
As the knot of children widens, a cervical collar and a spinal board are brought and gently but efficiently the collar is fixed around the neck of the victim. Next at the soft command of “roll-roll over”, the victim is rolled onto the spinal board and secured, under a manoeuvre called log-rolling through which the spinal cord is protected from any further injury.
“He is not breathing, there is no pulse,” results in the administration of CPR – cardiopulmonary resuscitation and an urgent request for an ambulance.
On the fringes of the knot of schoolchildren, we are privy to the launch of the first-ever Emergency Resuscitation Facility in a school on November 3.
The Emergency Resuscitation Facility has been inaugurated at the Ananda College Medical Centre and on the ground, the victim is no schoolboy, but a mannequin……..and the scene is just a demonstration.
This is also not the only initiative of the Old Anandians’ Medical Guild (OAMG), under a programme themed ‘Safe & healthy Ananda’. Its first major project at its alma mater was the setting up of the state-of-the-art Medical Centre, in an area where Cadets once had their firing range.
“The Emergency Resuscitation Facility at Ananda College is a model not found in schools anywhere in the country,” says the Director-General of Health Services, Dr. Palitha Mahipala, himself an eminent old boy, pledging medications and other support.
Explaining that it simulates a hospital setting and would help save lives, he urges other schools to follow this example.
The simple inauguration ceremony of the Emergency Resuscitation Facility is attended by many respected old boys sporting maroon-and-gold ties in honour of their school as well as a large number of teachers and students. The old boys include initiators of the OAMG, Senior Prof. Harshalal Seneviratne and Prof. Harendra de Silva; current President Prof. Athula Kaluarachchi; Secretary Dr. Chathuranga Ranasinghe and the Director of the National Hospital, Dr. Anil Jasinghe
It is Consultant Anaesthetist Dr. Haritha Dharmakeerthi also of the OAMG who reiterates the importance of emergency care services as accidents can happen in the school or on the playground.
Log-rolling manoeuvre: Attending to the injured ‘victim’
Tackling the “difficult task” of explaining what emergency care services are, he does so admirably through examples. “Simple allergies can be controlled with simple medications, but rarely there can be anaphylaxis. Then there is not much time to take the person to hospital and primary treatment will help save a life,” he says, adding that there could also be sudden accidents when there could be an injury to the all-important spinal cord.
“The way a person, especially with a possible spinal-cord injury, is lifted and carried matters. The right way is to fix a cervical collar and slowly and gently roll him onto a spinal-board, without jerking and movement. Basic life support may be needed if the heart has stopped because if the brain does not get blood, within three minutes it will begin to die,” says Dr. Dharmakeerthi, driving home the crucial message that it is impossible to take such a person to hospital during that time. This is why there is a need to give CPR and artificially ventilate with oxygen.
A programme initiated by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2015 has underscored that ‘Kids save lives’ and thus the need for all schoolchildren to learn basic life-saving skills.
Therefore, the Ananda College beacon spreading the word is that all children over 12 should be equipped with life-saving skills, so that they can go beyond the walls of the school not only imparting these skills to others but also saving lives.