Heart attack? Dial for police

Khan spoke with reporters yesterday at the Hyatt Regency, Port-of-Spain during a break in the national symposium on the threat of Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases to Childhood Futures.

Asked what people should do if they fall ill and need medical attention urgently, he said, “what they need to do is to keep their police station number close by so they could call the police station.”

He said, “the police station will organise the ambulance to go to their house and escort

them to the nearest institution.”

The police and ambulance services are essential services who are issued with specific passes.

Asked what should be done in the event of a major medical emergency, such as a heart attack, in which waiting for an ambulance could prove fatal, Khan said, “In such a situation police officers would have to escort that person to the nearest health facility.”

“It would be safer to contact the police officers to meet you at your house and escort you. It would be dangerous to be found driving through the curfew hours,” he said.

He noted that a lot of cardio-vascular illnesses such as heart attacks, and strokes tend to occur during the wee hours of the morning.

“It tends to occur in what we call the REM sleep pattern. That has to be taken into consideration,” he said.

He added, “Just keep your police station number close by or call them during the day and speak to the officer-in-charge to find out how best they could respond.”

When told that the police may not always be ready to escort an emergency patient to the hospital, Khan said, “In a curfew, you have to assume that the security forces would be on full alert and ready to take action.”