ARE WE CAREFUL ENOUGH?!

                                                              Pc: My modern met

            

A few years back when MSW wasn't even a thought in my head, I witnessed an incident. I saw the crowd and a bleeding man lying on the walking slab on the side of the road, while I and my mother were returning home. The man was bleeding through the nose and he was lying in a very uncomfortable position with one of his legs kind of hanging on the side of the path. The crowd just stands surrounding him and torches the light to his face and I could see the crowd getting bigger and bigger as seconds pass. Either no man in the crowd knows to provide first aid or they might be ignorant about the care a victim must be provided at the incident site.

A few months back when I was doing my internship with prominent palliative care in the city, I met a patient. He was paraplegic and has been in a bedridden state for the past 6 years. He was an extremely talented person and was in his head start towards success when he met with an accident on a day that changed his life. He and his friend fell from their bike onto a deep pit. An ambulance arrived at the scene and his friend was given care first as he had a wound and was bleeding. The patient was PICKED UP by the people and put on the stretcher even though he was telling them that something is wrong with his back and no cervical collar was put around his neck. The patient was taken to the hospital and the doctor declared that he won't be able to walk again as much damage was done during his transportation to the hospital. Just because we were not careful enough that man had to live his life in pain and bedsores from the day after.

I felt like ventilating my thoughts on this platform as no one else should suffer because of our ignorance. In schools, students' stressed out about trigonometry or the French revolution but we forget to teach them the basic survival skills or the proper way to give immediate assistance to the victim. Why hasn't it been made mandatory in schools? Many of us don't know how to swim. If these were taught in schools and given practice we could have reduced the mortality rate by drowning or the survival skills would have helped hundreds during Kerala Flood 2018. It is high time we all must prepare the future to face reality with utmost importance than spoon feeding and all the stuffing of theory. Even in Social Work, we require more practice than theory because real is not like in books. Next time, when you think of an idea for a project consider this thought.

Let's start making a difference in this matter by conducting workshops or through social advocacy. Even as social workers we must also learn the proper way to give first aids eventhough it has not been inculcated in our theory or practice. Things must begin to change for a better tomorrow as no one else should lose their life because of our ignorance.