Hyderabad: On a mission to save lives

The sight of a speeding ambulance makes us ask for a blessing for the needy. We thank the saviour and humbly give way. But these saviours usually ferry those that can pay. There are many that die every day for lack of timely attention. In medical emergencies, the poor suffer untold agony in rushing the sick to hospitals.

An ambulance that acts as the first responder in saving lives and rushing them to medicare is most longed for, in such situations. But, they often pay price with lives for want of affordability.

Moved by the plight of poor people in rushing their loved ones to hospitals in critical hours, Mujtaba Helping Foundation is introducing a free ambulance service in the city, in collaboration with a good Samaritan Dr Syed Amjad.

Explaining the initiative behind the free ambulance service, Dr Syed Amjad, who is practising at Sadashivpet in Sangareddy district, said, "It was in the year 2014 when I lost my seven year old son who was congenitally suffering from Ventricular Septal Defect (ASD).

I had to take him urgently to the hospital and the ambulance driver asked me to pay Rs 3,500 but I had only Rs 3000 in my pocket at that time. Somehow I could manage to shift my child to hospital but he died there as I was late by just 30 minutes. I don't want to see other people go through what I suffered in misery."

"The free ambulance service will be launched from the first week of February to help people during medical emergencies. It is very important to shift the people to hospitals in time during medical emergencies and having ambulance service even from society side also helps people during their testing time," informed Shaikh Mohd Mustafa, president of Mujtaba Helping Foundation, who also lost his only son in 2015 in a tragic incident.

"We are already assisting people in hospitals to get diagnosed and even making surgeries affordable to them. We have a network of hospitals in the city where we arrange appointments for the people to get diagnosed and go for surgeries if they are suffering any chronic ailments.

We even issue ID Cards to people who approach us to get benefits with our services. So far we have enrolled around 4,000 people in the city for whom we arranged treatment by various specialists. Our first priority is to strive for a healthy society," he elaborated.