Ambulance driver plays doc, saves life

It was by chance that Ravi Singh, 25, switched from driving trucks on national highways to driving ambulances for Fortis Hospital two years ago. And this radical change in Singh’s choice of ride helped Delhi businessman Anshul Gupta (name changed) breathe again.

It was by chance that Ravi Singh, 25, switched from driving trucks on national highways to driving ambulances for Fortis Hospital two years ago. And this radical change in Singh’s choice of ride helped Delhi businessman Anshul Gupta (name changed) breathe again.

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On Tuesday afternoon (November 29), Gupta, 50, had what his doctor describes a “massive heart attack” while driving with his family on the Kashmere Gate flyover.

Luckily for him, Singh was driving right behind him. “I saw a white Maruti 800 swerve a little and then crash into the road divider. I stopped when I saw a teenage boy jump out crying that his father has had a heart attack,” said Singh.

With two years of ambulance rounds behind him, Singh decided to do what he could to help. “I was alone and the three women and boy in the car were in a panic,” says Singh, who had watched doctors and paramedics perform CPR — short for cardiopulmonary resuscitation, an emergency procedure to revive breathing after cardiac arrest.

“I pulled him out, laid him flat on the road, and realised he had no pulse. I did what I had seen doctors do. I pumped his heart, and then blew into his mouth,” says Singh. With a jerk, Gupta started breathing in gasps. “His pulse came back and I got him to the hospital within 12 minutes,” says Singh.

Singh doesn’t even know the name of the man whose life he saved. “I didn’t ask, but the family did say thank you,” he says.