For friends Shaffi Mather and Ravi Krishna, two alarming encounters with health care systems in two different parts of the world would radically alter their career paths. For Mather, it happened one evening in Kerala, India, when he found his mother choking in her sleep. He had no idea whom to call for help. His mother survived, after an intensive care unit admission, but the experience left a lasting impression. A few days later, Krishnas mother collapsed in Manhattan and was retrieved by an ambulance within four minutes. The difference, they realized, was 911, the U.S. telephone number that provides quick, easy access to emergency services. They also realized that if an educated Indian citizen in urban Kerala did not know what to do in an emergency, how could poor, uneducated Indians cope with one? Mathers experience was not an isolated case. With no number to call, anyone with a medical emergency--particularly those in low-income communities--was better off calling a friend with a car or even a local rickshaw driver than an ambulance if they hoped to reach the hospital in time for life-saving care. The few ambulances in operation were often empty trucks, the same vehicles used as hearses, and there was no single phone number to call for help. As a result, people were dying needlessly. In 2004, a group of five friends--Sweta Mangal, Naresh Jain, Manish Sacheti, Shaffi Mather, and Ravi Krishna--launched an emergency medical service in Mumbai with two ambulances. In 2005 they added 10 more ambulances. They named the service after the phone number that would connect people to it: Dial 1298 for Ambulance.
Posted on: Sat, 31 May 2014 10:06:47 +0000
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