AIIMS professor bleeds for 1-hr over lack of medical aid at IGI terminal 3

New Delhi: Growing indifference in society to come to the aid of victims of the accident became glaring in the case of a senior assistant professor, AIIMS Jodhpur, who ran helter-skelter for over an hour at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International airport’s world-class terminal 3, unsuccessfully looking for first aid to stop profuse bleeding from his forehead. The airport counter staff also failed to provide medical assistance to him. The incident took place on 19^th December.

Ironically, the medical aid room that Assistant Professor, Dr Prem Prakash Sharma was looking for, was reportedly locked. Incidentally, there happens to be an operative Medanta clinic inside the airport. Though both the professor and the airport staff seemed unaware of its existence.

Dr. Sharma, the fifty-seven-year-old Biostatistician arrived at the Delhi airport's T3 terminal to catch an Air India (AI) flight to Vishakhapatnam.

"I was trying to take out my luggage from the cab's trunk when it fell on my head and I fell down. Seconds later, when I got up with the driver's assistance, I noticed that my forehead was bleeding. I tried to contain the blood flow with my handkerchief but it did not stop. So then I approached my airline's counter to seek medical assistance," Sharma told Zee News.

"No medical or paramedical staff was available nearby. Finally, the airline staff apologized to me. Later, a woman at an information counter, who had a first aid kit, helped me. Luckily, the bleeding had stopped by then," Sharma said, adding, "I got proper dressing and Tetanus injections after reaching Visakhapatnam."

The Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) authorities, in their defense meanwhile, that sufficient medical facilities are available at the airport, including a Medanta clinic.

Sharma, however, said that neither he nor the airline staff was aware of any such facility.

"Surprisingly, out of hundreds of airport staff on the floor, none came forward to offer help as we roamed around. It was shocking for me to learn that on an international airport like IGIA, no first aid facility could be availed. Fortunately, it was not a major accident. Had this happened to a tourist or an international passenger, it would have been an insult for the country," the professor added.