Labourer recalls workshop he attended at work to resuscitate newborn, earns praise from doctors
A chance CPR training and quick-thinking helped a daily wage labourer save his newborn son’s life. Guddu Chaudhary’s second child, Priyom, was born with a tumour in his heart. The diagnosis had the family, who live in Bhayander, running across the city in the hopes of a cure for their baby.
While moving their child from a hospital in Bhayander to Wadia Hospital in Parel, Chaudhary saw his 45-day-old son slipping away. Seven months ago, Guddu Chaudhary, 36, who works at Kunal Kitchenware in Palghar, attended a Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) training at his office. Recalling the training, he attempted the CPR, an act that doctors say, saved his son’s life.
Speaking to DNA, Chaudhary said that they were initially seeking treatment in the Mira-Bhayander area. With little improvement recorded, the family was asked to take the baby to Wadia hospital.
“In 15 days, we went to three different hospitals. The doctors first asked about money and then examined our baby. We borrowed and spent close to Rs 90,000 in two weeks. Later, we were told to take him to Wadia,” said Chaudhary.
But the family did not have enough money to pay for an ambulance. “An ambulance costs over Rs 3,500 and the one with an oxygen cylinder was even more expensive,” Guddu said.
The parents decided to hail a taxi for Rs 300. During the ride, Chaudhary noticed his son’s legs go numb and his breathing become uneven, and performed CPR.
Dr Biswa Panda, head of the paediatric cardiac surgery at the Wadia Hospital for Children, praised Chaudhary for his quick thinking. “The baby had a two centimetre atrial myxoma tumour. It occurs in one in a million births. To remove the tumour surgically is challenging due to the size of the heart,” Dr Panda explained.
“This incident shows how important it is to create awareness. More people in schools and companies should be trained to help cardiac patients during the critical time before they reach the hospital,” he said.
Post a successful surgery, Priyom has a healthy life ahead of him. “His heart function was back to normal a day after surgery. And there is only a one-two per cent risk of the tumour recurring,” Dr Panda said.
Priyom’s surgery was performed for free by the Wadia Hospital. The family, though, had to borrow an additional Rs 55,000 to meet other expenses, said Chaudhary’s wife Rakhi.
Term talk
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an emergency procedure that combines chest compressions with mouth to mouth breathing to preserve the brain function of a person who has had cardiac arrest
Research suggests that about 40 per cent of patients who receive CPR after experiencing cardiac arrest in a hospital, survive
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