Bengaluru road accident: Have our sensibilities been crushed, too!

Bengaluru is the new age Roman gladiatorial ring, where citizens are left on their own daily to face modern monsters – overloaded lorries, speeding buses and the like, coming at us from the left, from the right, and in every direction. And for the morbidly curious that gather as soon as one is knocked down, watching the horrific deaths — the crushing of the organs, the severing of limbs, the last breath — is the new spectator sport. No, they are not inhuman. Rather, as they take out their smartphones to film the dying, they merely forget that the victim must be taken to a hospital immediately — as they did on Tumakuru Road as 26-year-old Harish Kumar lay dying, crushed under the wheels of a truck that overtook him. Team DC reports:

He was returning to the city from his hometown in Tumakuru having done his civic duty of voting in the panchayat election when he met his gruesome end. Twenty six- year- old Harish Kumar was on his bike when the lorry carrying sugar bags tried to overtake him on NH4 at T Begur near Thippagondanahalli. Before he knew it he was thrown off his Bajaj Pulsar, right in the way of the vehicle which ran over him, nearly slicing him in half.

Miraculously, he did not die or lose consciousness immediately.  While his grotesquely disfigured body lay on the highway, a crowd gathered around. But instead of rushing to his help the people merely took photographs on their mobile phones, rushing to post them on their social media sites in a race to show the world  they were at the spot.

It was left to the police to alert the nearby toll plaza which  has an ambulance on standby and also call 108. Both ambulances arrived nearly simultaneously in around  10 to 12 minutes and in 15 more Harish was at the Nelamangala government hospital. But the life had finally gone out of him by then.

While people showed utter callousness at the site of his accident on Tuesday, the young man put them all to shame as he was not thinking about himself lying on the road, nearly cut in half and  bleeding to death. He was even then thinking of making a difference in someone else’s life. With his last breath he told his attendants in the ambulance taking him to hospital that he wished to donate any organ the doctors could save. Unfortunately it was only his eyes that were fit for harvesting and he died giving sight to someone else.

Harish's noble act in the face of death is in stark contrast to the mob mentality that has become evident of late in the city. Just three days before he met his untimely death, another 25-year-old ,  critically injured after ramming his bike into a road median in Chikkajala traffic police station limits, was also widely photographed by passers-by stopping more out of  curiosity than any real concern to see the accident.

Harish may have been beyond help, but people’s lack of empathy in such situations is obviously no laughing matter as it can cost someone his or her life. Timely help in an accident can be invaluable, as doctors often point out. Psychiatrists blame the addiction that some people have for publicity on  social media for this trend of photographing victims of accidents.“They are just looking for cheap publicity. Today, everyone knows that they can become popular by uploading such photos or videos on social media platforms,” says Dr. B. N.
Gangadhar, a psychiatrist at Nimhans, who however, believes this could be
 a passing phase and people will eventually shed their fascination for social media and regain their sense of balance in emergencies.

“Sometimes, those who see an accident go into shock themselves and cannot react,” explains former director general and inspector general of police, S. T. Ramesh.  But he too does not condone people standing around taking photographs when they could be helping the accident victim, crying for help. "If they are taking photographs or videos of the victim instead of helping him, it is worse than bystander apathy,” deplores the senior police officer.

What should you do?
If a motorist has caused the accident, he should arrange for medical aid and inform the police immediately. If a person is witness to an accident, he should help the victim and note down the details of the accused person before informing the police

Harish’s chances of survival were nil, say doctors
Bystanders may have been oblivious to his pain, but Harish Kumar’s chances of survival were almost negligible even if help was at hand immediately, according to doctors.

“There are many polytrauma cases and Nimhans sees many head injuries but nothing like this,” says medical superintendent of Nimhans, Dr Badrinarayan, who believes the condition of the biker was such that he hardly had any chance of surviving.

“It is a sad but a very difficult case as there was total transection and laceration or contusion of internal organs, which made reconstruction very difficult. Help during the golden hour may not have worked in this case,” agrees Dr Shankar Prasad, medical director of St Phelomena’s Hospital, adding, “With such massive blood loss it is highly unlikely that people can be saved and in his case the spinal cord was also severed into two. In severe polytrauma cases people at the spot can do little to help. In other accident cases passers-by can assess the victim and provide first-aid before rushing him or her to the nearest hospital.”

Dr Mabel Vasnaik, chairperson, accident and emergency, Manipal Hospitals explains that Harish’s blood vessels may have gone into spasm, leaving him breathing for a while after the accident. “However, this is rare when half the body is severed. This was a case of severe polytrauma and even if the ambulance had arrived much earlier, there would have been so many parameters to address that his chances of survival would have been almost nil,” she explains.

Zameer gives Rs 5 lakh to Harish Nanjappa’s kin
In a rare act of generosity, Chamarajapet MLA Zameer Ahmed Khan has gifted Rs 5 lakh to the family of Harish Nanjappa, the two-wheeler rider whose own act of selflessness as he lay dying, moved this unusual politician.

Nanjappa donated his eyes, before he succumbed to injuries in a road mishap on Bengaluru-Tumakuru highway on Monday, Mr Khan told Deccan Chronicle “I was very moved by Mr Nanjappa's last wish of wanting to donate his eyes, despite being bathed in blood.”

Photographing, not helping victim, worst act of cruelty: Professor M.N. Sreehari, Traffic Expert
here are several problems when it comes to medico legal cases. If people are not interested in taking accident victims to a nearby hospital it’s because private hospital are often reluctant to admit them and sometimes demand thousands or even lakhs of rupees to do so.

So an ordinary person is afraid of getting involved. Also, if a stranger takes an accident victim to a hospital, it nearly always refuses to admit him without establishing his identity.

Hospitals want the name of the person admitting the victim, his address proof and so on, creating confusion among the good samaritans. In doing this these hospitals are on the wrong side of the law. The Supreme Court has made it clear that hospitals are obligated to treat emergency cases without demanding any money first. But they still continue this practice.

Having said that this new trend of people taking videos and  photographs of those hurt in accidents, and in badly need of their help, is the worst act of cruelty. People take these pictures to share with the media or friends and boast of being at the spot of such a major accident. But if they instead offered first aid they could save a life.