What steps taken to provide cardiac life support at public places: HC asks Centre, AAP govt

The Delhi High Court Wednesday asked the central and AAP government about the steps they have taken to provide basic and advanced cardiac life support at public places to prevent deaths due to sudden heart attacks.

A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar directed the Union Health Ministry and the Delhi government to provide details of the centres already set up, and those in the pipeline, for providing immediate first aid to persons who suffer sudden cardiac arrests while in public places.

The court also sought details of the manpower already deployed at such centres and the future road-map of personnel to be engaged at such places, after central government standing counsel Ajay Digpaul, appearing for the ministry, told the bench that such centres have been set up in various districts of the national capital.

The two governments were also asked to indicate the training they were providing to the personnel deployed at such centres and also the availability of ambulances with Automotive Industry Standard (AIS) 125 part-2 facilities in the city.

Similar directions were issued by the bench to other public authorities, including the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation and the Railways and asked all of them to file their affidavits before the next date of hearing on September 12.

The direction by the bench came while hearing a PIL initiated by the high court on a letter sent by Dr K K Aggarwal, Padma Shree awardee and National President of Heart Care Foundation of India (HCFI), on the issue of setting up centres, in public places like courts, railways and metro, with staff trained in Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and having automated external defibrillator (AED) to prevent deaths due to cardiac arrests.

Aggarwal, in the letter, has also sought directions to the authorities to train citizens in providing CPR in order to help prevent deaths due to sudden cardiac arrest, which he has said kills lakhs of people in India every day.

He told the court that most of the cardiac arrest deaths were preventable if CPR is provided within five minutes of the heart attack.

He said that Basic Cardiac Life Support (BCLS) and Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACSL), which could save lives, were not even available in the Delhi High Court or the Supreme Court according to information received under RTI.