People die in the metro
Last year I twice witnessed people fainting and falling down in the metro. In first case it was a middle-age man, who died. A girl of about eight seems to be alive.
While actively trying to help, I cleared out the following:
1. People often crowd around not even trying to help. On the contrary, they impede.
2. It turned out that there is a medical first aid post in the metro, it is located at the station, near the escalators.
3. The medical first aid post is intended for the metro personnel, not for passengers.
4. Its employees affirm they help passenger in urgent cases, but that’s not true.
5. As a matter of fact, the heath care workers do not always know how to render the first medical aid.
6. They said they worked in shifts, but that was not true either. The first aid post actually closes at 6 p.m. sharp, when rush-hours, accompanied by unbearable hustle and stuffiness, begin. A heart attack may cost one his/her life, if the ambulance is blocked in the traffic jam or roads are closed.
7. Death in the metro is not a topic for a news article, thus, nobody will learn about it.
8. Policemen were talking about the girl, who fainted: “Not a perfect time for falling down, people are looking! You see, in other words, it is also shameful.
It also turned out that Azerbaijani print media regularly disseminates one and the same news – there will be medical first aid posts at every metro station.
2009 – Baku metro to render medical aid to passengers
2014 – An important novelty to be introduced in Baku metro
2015 – Knowing these rules you may save a person’s life
Judging from this piece of news, there are still no first aid posts for passengers in the metro.
According to Gaib Aliyev, the first aid professional, only heart massage and artificial respiration give little chances for survival, they increase it only when a person is sinking or has breathing problems. “As for cardiac problems, chances are very low without the medic’s aid, he said.
Even when the doctors come, everything will depend on their professionalism. According to statistics, use of defibrillator gives 80 per cent chance for cardiopulmonary resuscitation. However, if used 4 minutes after a cardiac standstill, there are little chances for survival’.
Thus, that man might have survived, if the defibrillator had been used at the metro station.
When I was writing about this case on my Facebook page, I found out that other Facebook users also had seen people fainting or even dying in the metro.
“In summer I witnessed the similar case, – says Angelika, – a 60 year-old woman fainted away at Memar Adjemi station. I followed the instruction, made sure she was breathing, I helped her get back on her feet. The metro personnel and policemen were unaware how to render the first aid. Before I interfered, a policeman had checked her pulse and said she had died. But I saw she was breathing. Neither policemen nor metro employees had liquid ammonia. I urged them to call the ambulance, but it did not come during 20 minutes I was there. The woman revived and I went to my office. Later, I read the news that a woman died at that station on that day. More than likely the ambulance did not come’.
