Critical patient pulls through, courtesy ‘green corridor’

Ajay Joshi

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, May 22

The city police on Saturday created a ‘green corridor’ for a critical Covid patient. With 60 per cent damaged lungs, the patient had to be shifted to SPS Apollo Hospital in Ludhiana. While he failed to respond to the treatment here at Shrimann Superspeciality Hospital, near Pathankot Chowk, the timely response of city police helped in saving the life of the patient.

The patient was identified as Ankur Gupta. He got infected with the virus on May 5 and was receiving treatment here. Owing to his critical condition, he had to be shifted to an Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenayion (ECMO) bed which is effectively considered as an artificial lung. The treatment is used when respiratory system fails to respond. Due to unavailaibility of bed here, the doctors managed to get him a bed at SPS Apollo Hospital on Ludhiana-Chandigarh road. With the help of the green corridor, the ambulance in which he was taken to the hospital took 40 minutes to reach, covering over 70 km distance. SHO Police Division eight, Ravinder Kumar said, he had received information about the patient at around 9.45 am. All arrangements were made to escort the ambulance which left Jalandhar at 10.15 AM today.

After escorting the ambulance to PAP and Rama Mandi, Ludhiana Police was also informed about the patient and made the app arrangments to clear the road for the ambulance, added the SHO.