Hi all,
I wanted to start a blog for a while but for some reason or other ended up procrastinating it. Yesterday I met a couple at airport and it lead to conversations which made a compelling case in my mind to start this. I met a Dr. "M" and his wife on the Newark Intl Airport. During our conversation, I shared with them few incidents in my life and the wife shared some in hers. We both had lost our dear ones to road accidents in India and both passionately felt that they could have been resolved in a better manner.
My father was a retired small business owner, healthy as one can be at the age of 76. He lived his life happily. One day returning from his chores and rounds to Shivaji Park in Mumbai, he was hit by a car. He died in that accident. The driver who hit him took him to a hospital near the place of accident but they did not admit him and asked him to be taken to KEM which is 15-30 minutes away. When he was taken there and by the time he was being treated he had lost a lot of blood and died in the hospital. This happened 3/4 years back but it is typical case for anyone who has lost their loved ones in accident. I do not argue, nor do I have any data on how many of these cases would be saved had we build a better response system. But even if I assume that we would save 1 life, is it not worth our efforts?
This couple I met at the airport had a similar story. The wife's sister whom she loved a lot was travelling with her daughter and was hit by a bus. The daughter who is school-aged did not know what needs to be done. And by the time someone helped her it was too late.
Now that I have laid down the tragic incidents, and I am sure many of you have similar stories you have experienced or heard off, let me come to the point of this blog. I want to do something about this and the best way to tackle this is to prevent this from happening to others.
One can only wish for reducing accidents but knowing how difficult that would be (not impossible though), let us start with how we can improve the process post accident. What if we create a helpline which provides end -to-end help for someone who has or knows someone or has witnessed an accident? This helpline, as I envision, would chat with the person and do the following
1. Based on the location of accident, it will advise the person to drive to nearest hospital which could admit the patient
2. It will inform the hospital of the patient who is on its way.
3. Try to ask some volunteer at hospital who could complete most of the paperwork and keep ready before the patient reaches the hospital
4. Establish a network of volunteers in various hospitals - I believe social media will help us with this.
5. Establish a fund which would allow to advance money towards admission fees - taking the risk of non - payment which I believe will be low
6. Follow-up with patient post the incident and maintain records of all incidents to facilitate process changes in future.
7. Study the legal process and understand how we can have most things ready and smoothen the process to the extend it can be.
8. Visit all hospitals in Mumbai and collect information on admission including phone nos there.
Now let's assess how much one needs to invest in this project. Even if we count for salary, phone, computer etc. it will not cost more than 10k-15k per month. I would like to run this for a period of 6 months and assess the value it creates.
What I need from the reader of this blog is as follows:
1. Respond and let me know if your feedback on the approach
2. Can you let me know if you would be willing to contribute to the expense for the cause? No actual money transferred unless I have committed my funds and time to get this started.
3. After I have the process started, I am planning to use social media like email, facebook etc. to spread the helpline no and other details to folk in Mumbai. Will need your commitment to spread the word to everyone you know.
Regards,
Your Friend
I wanted to start a blog for a while but for some reason or other ended up procrastinating it. Yesterday I met a couple at airport and it lead to conversations which made a compelling case in my mind to start this. I met a Dr. "M" and his wife on the Newark Intl Airport. During our conversation, I shared with them few incidents in my life and the wife shared some in hers. We both had lost our dear ones to road accidents in India and both passionately felt that they could have been resolved in a better manner.
My father was a retired small business owner, healthy as one can be at the age of 76. He lived his life happily. One day returning from his chores and rounds to Shivaji Park in Mumbai, he was hit by a car. He died in that accident. The driver who hit him took him to a hospital near the place of accident but they did not admit him and asked him to be taken to KEM which is 15-30 minutes away. When he was taken there and by the time he was being treated he had lost a lot of blood and died in the hospital. This happened 3/4 years back but it is typical case for anyone who has lost their loved ones in accident. I do not argue, nor do I have any data on how many of these cases would be saved had we build a better response system. But even if I assume that we would save 1 life, is it not worth our efforts?
This couple I met at the airport had a similar story. The wife's sister whom she loved a lot was travelling with her daughter and was hit by a bus. The daughter who is school-aged did not know what needs to be done. And by the time someone helped her it was too late.
Now that I have laid down the tragic incidents, and I am sure many of you have similar stories you have experienced or heard off, let me come to the point of this blog. I want to do something about this and the best way to tackle this is to prevent this from happening to others.
One can only wish for reducing accidents but knowing how difficult that would be (not impossible though), let us start with how we can improve the process post accident. What if we create a helpline which provides end -to-end help for someone who has or knows someone or has witnessed an accident? This helpline, as I envision, would chat with the person and do the following
1. Based on the location of accident, it will advise the person to drive to nearest hospital which could admit the patient
2. It will inform the hospital of the patient who is on its way.
3. Try to ask some volunteer at hospital who could complete most of the paperwork and keep ready before the patient reaches the hospital
4. Establish a network of volunteers in various hospitals - I believe social media will help us with this.
5. Establish a fund which would allow to advance money towards admission fees - taking the risk of non - payment which I believe will be low
6. Follow-up with patient post the incident and maintain records of all incidents to facilitate process changes in future.
7. Study the legal process and understand how we can have most things ready and smoothen the process to the extend it can be.
8. Visit all hospitals in Mumbai and collect information on admission including phone nos there.
Now let's assess how much one needs to invest in this project. Even if we count for salary, phone, computer etc. it will not cost more than 10k-15k per month. I would like to run this for a period of 6 months and assess the value it creates.
What I need from the reader of this blog is as follows:
1. Respond and let me know if your feedback on the approach
2. Can you let me know if you would be willing to contribute to the expense for the cause? No actual money transferred unless I have committed my funds and time to get this started.
3. After I have the process started, I am planning to use social media like email, facebook etc. to spread the helpline no and other details to folk in Mumbai. Will need your commitment to spread the word to everyone you know.
Regards,
Your Friend
