02 September,2009 08:02 AM IST | | Anshuman G Dutta
That's what a new army device will do in the battlefield
The Indian Army has finally found a cure for one of the biggest killers in the battlefield.
Apart from the enemy fire, more than 30 per cent soldiers in different theaters of operation succumb to their injury after their respiratory tract gets blocked due to internal bleeding.
"It's a typical medical condition where the internal bleeding is so severe that the blood gets into the respiratory tract. It immediately chokes the person leading to brain death within three minutes. In Kargil war almost 30-40 soldiers died everyday because of this condition," said an army doctor on condition of anonymity.
Deployed in the forward medical units during Kargil war, the doctor himself saw soldiers dying because of this common but deadly complication. But now the cure has arrived in the form of a hand held device, which can be administered by para-medics giving sufficient time to evacuate the injured soldier to hospital.
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"In medical terms it's called Cricothyroidectomy. In simple terms the device creates a very tiny hole in the neck creating an air passage. It allows the windpipe to function normally and gives us sufficient time to take the person on advance life support system," he added.
The device, which forms the part of a Disaster Kit, has now been made mandatory for all the field medical units.
Men from medical corps have also been given training to deal with the complication and use the kit. The Disaster Kit consists of a small oxygen cylinder along with a mask, the cricothyroiddectomy device and few important live saving drugs. The device has been imported from United States of America and has been standard equipment for the US Army medical units.
"In emergency conditions these can be used by any one. The instructions are general in nature and there is no chance for any side effect," said the officer.
Interestingly the device can be effectively used in metro cities like Delhi to deal with the cases of road accident. "In some of the road accident cases also the injured person dies due to chocking of wind pipe. The para-medics staff can administer the device right on the spot so that the person remains safe for another couple of hours," said another Army Medical Corps (AMC) officer.
No bad mouthing
Army is looking forward to wind pipe support system as an alternative to mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, which is considered a big cause of infection in battlefield. There is always a degree of risk involved in mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, as you never know the medical condition of the injured person. The device provides a sure and safe method to revive the breathing of the injured person.
