Critical care specialists advocate helmet use

Critical care specialists from across the country advocated the use of helmets for the prevention of brain injuries that need extensive critical care. Nearly 400 doctors from all over the country also discussed the protocol of diagnosing sepsis in the early stages, saying that more people die in India of infection in the bloodstream than even of heart attacks!

"There is a huge number of men and women who end up in the intensive care units after accidents on the roads of India," said critical care expert from Hinduja Hospital, Dr Khusrav Bajan. "Ahmedabad leads in accident cases despite having less population than Mumbai. Data indicates that while Mumbai reports 40 accidents daily in a population of 20 million people, 30 accidents take place in Ahmedabad which has 5.5 million population. These are huge numbers but people still do not want to learn and start protecting themselves."

Dr Jose Chacko of Manipal Hopsital, Bengaluru, said that crucial time was wasted in head injury cases while looking for hospitals that have doctors specializing in neurology. "The initial mission should be to stabilize patients by maintaining blood pressure, oxygen and breathing," he said. "In many patients with swollen brain, time is the only healer with good ICU support as they do not need neuro-surgery or specialized neuro-care. With accidents increasing, critical care should be mastered by doctors so that care can be administered at most hospitals with good ICU facilities."

The critical care specialists were participating in the one-day Ahmedabad Physicians' Association - Gujarat Critical Care (APP-GCC 2013) event. Doctors, critical care specialists, and anesthetists participated in the conference held on Sunday, organizing secretary Dr Rajesh Mishra said.

Mishra said that the focus of the conference was on the management of brain, lung and heart infections as well sepsis which has become a major challenge for doctors in ICUs. He said that specific case studies were discussed at the end of paper presentation to ensure that participants got well versed with the challenges of saving more patients in ICUs.

Experts said that there was a pressing need for doctors to follow the protocol of diagnosing early sepsis as many young patients suffering from viral diseases like H1N1 and dengue succumb to sepsis without timely intervention.