NEW DELHI: In a city where accident victims are often left to bleed on the road by callous or scared passersby, Anil Sharma has picked up five victims in the last four months "because I just cannot leave them on the road to die".
Sharma, an anesthesiologist working at the trauma centre of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), never hesitates to stop, pick up accident victims, and take them to the nearest hospital.
"Call it coincidence or god's wish ... I happen to see them on my way and as a human being I just cannot leave them on the road to die. In the last four months or so, I have picked up five accident victims and brought them to hospital," Sharma said.
"Except in one case, where a journalism student was bleeding near Ashram Chowk in south Delhi, rest of them survived. It's a pity that people leave their fellow men on the road even at a time when someone is fighting for survival," the 35-year-old doctor said.
"The journalism student was bleeding for over 45 minutes before I saw him and brought him to hospital. But by the time we reached hospital, the golden hour (first one hour after accident) was over."
That was nearly two months back. In the most recent incident, on Sunday Sharma took young accountant Praful Srivastava to the AIIMS trauma centre when he found Srivastava lying under an overturned auto-rickshaw and bleeding profusely on an east Delhi road. A crowd had gathered but had done nothing.
"It's sad that a crowd was watching the bleeding man without rushing him to a hospital. He has a major injury on his forehead and near his right eye. He is at AIIMS and is in a better condition now," said Sharma, who has been a doctor for the past 11 years.
Close to his place of work, Sharma rescued a young couple after the motorcycle they were riding was involved in an accident at the AIIMS flyover. He also brought to AIIMS an elderly accident victim he had seen when on his way to work from his Ghaziabad home. "Except the journalism student, everyone else survived. Thank God."
"As a doctor I know the importance of time and never hesitate to bring a victim in my own car. People think that if they bring an accident victim to hospital, their car will get bloodstains and they will be entangled in a medico-legal case.
"If it happens with any of their family members will they think about it? In most cases, a young man is the lone bread earner of the family and if you save him, you are saving a family," said Sharma.
AIIMS, India's premier government hospital and medical research centre, treats nearly 8,000 patients every day.
