By: Dilip Jiruka
AMRELI: Amid torrential rains, there was nobody who could help Manjula (name changed) even as she lay crying and writhing in labour pain. The
flood
around her house in Tansa village of Talaja taluka in Bhavnagar district only compounded woes of the family. They had no other option but to call 108 emergency services to rescue the woman and her unborn child.
Rain flooded the causeway near Tansa and the village lost contact with mainland. There was no way the woman could reach the hospital on time. After 108 staff comprising Mahesh Bamania and Ravi Gohil got the emergency call, they risked their lives in crossing the flooded causeway and reaching out to the desperate family.
“When we received a call about the woman in labour, we rushed to Tansa and saw flood all around and the house submerged in knee-deep waters. We waded through it, rescued the woman, and conducted her delivery in the ambulance,” said Bamania of 108 emergency service, adding any further delay would have been disastrous.
That was just one instance of the 21such deliveries that 108 EMRI emergency ambulance services conducted in Bhavnagar, Botad and Amreli districts in the past 36 hours. True to its motto of saving lives in distress, the service has again proved to be the only lifeline of such marooned people, especially for expecting mothers.
Not only have these 21 lives been saved, but the ambulance staff also helped them in delivering healthy babies. These women and their
newborns
have either been sent to their homes or shifted to nearby hospitals.
Similarly, Arvind Bhoot and Vijay Gohil of 108 emergency service rescued a pregnant woman stuck in flood in Palitana taluka of Bhavnagar district. Here too, staff conducted her delivery on a highland near a bridge on the road, thus saving two lives — both of the mother and the
newborn
. Had they not taken the risk on time, it would have turned into a tragedy, said Bhoot.