Motorcycle ambulance proved its worth when it carried a pregnant woman from a remote village, Ongnarpal, deep inside the Chhattisgarh jungle to a hospital successfully in time and she delivered a beautiful baby girl. The woman was eight months pregnant when her water broke and taken to the hospital on a sidecar attached with the motorcycle ambulance.
Motorcycle ambulance is a new concept in India that is saving many lives in remote regions when people could not make it to the hospital on time.
The woman (Sukmi) and her baby might not have survived if the motorcycle ambulance had not ferry them to the civil hospital in Narayanpur district.
Operating in the Maoist-hit Narayanpur district of Bastar division in Chhattisgarh, these ambulances are a joint initiative of UNICEF and a non-profit organization called Saathi. The free ambulance service, launched one-and-a-half years back in the region, has changed their views and now at least 35 villages in Dhanora and Dongar areas, located around 400 kms from the state capital, with no proper road connectivity, are availing the facility.
Health specialist at UNICEF, Ajay Trakroo said, – “Pregnant women are our main focus in the area as mortality rate is high in this conflict bound region of Chhattisgarh. With this experiment we are trying to provide necessary health care to the pregnant women of this Maoist-affected tribal and hard-to- reach forest area.”
The motorcycle-ambulance has saved the lives of over 200 pregnant women and helped see a drop in maternal and infant mortality rate in the Maoist-hit Narayanpur district of Bastar division in Chhattisgarh.
Bhupesh Tiwari, founder of Saathi Ngo said, – “As of now only one motorbike ambulance is being run in the tribal area. It has a ‘side car’ with an adapted mattress attached to it and equipped with an oxygen cylinder. The rider has been given basic first-aid training so as to deal with any emergency condition.”
