Doctors save lives.
But can engineers?
I am a Biomedical Engineer. And I have helped keep people alive.
Many years ago, I was on field, as a Product Specialist, promoting my machine - a Foetal Monitor. I visited Dr. Phadke's Maternity Home at Andheri and explained the functioning of the machine. Dr. Phadke, the gynaecologist was immediately interested and wanted a demo. "How quickly can I have the demo?"
"Tomorrow?"
"No, now."
That sounded like a sure sale coming up. I called up my boss and told him I have an interested doctor seated in front of me. Within half an hour, he walked into the clinic with the machine. Dr. Phadke chose a patient for the demo to be performed on. We connected the machine to the patient, gel, probe, graph, the works.
The printing sounds began. The foetal ECG started getting displayed and printed. Dr. Phadke looked grave. She bent closer and closer to the prints. Next moment, she sprang up and called out to the nurse to prepare the delivery room. "Foetal Heart rate is abnormal," she told us.
The patient was rushed to the delivery room, while our team stood there looking at each other. Realisation dawned. We had just saved that baby. We had saved a life.
I was probably drawn to that clinic that day because that baby was destined to live.
Fast forward two years.
I was working in a company that serviced my favourite machine - the ventilator. (Favourite only because I had done some deep research on this machine during my graduation internship and I had developed great interest in it. Otherwise, this is a dreaded machine, because too often, people don’t come out of it.)
I had finished work early that day, caught a train and then a bus, and reached home. We switched on the TV... it was blaring about a series of bomb blasts in Mumbai locals. I could see mutilated bodies on the railway tracks, groups of locals who had come out to help. A chilling realization dawned upon me. I was there only an hour ago!! I was saved by skin of my teeth.
Next morning, our team was asked to report to KEM hospital. That's where the casualties were coming in. Blast survivors from various hospitals were being shifted to KEM. Multiple machines were faulty, malfunctioning, our team went from ward to ward, ICU to ICCU, fixing the ventilators - machines that helped patients breathe, and assisted their lungs through the journey to independent breathing again.
Do engineers save lives? Biomedical engineers sure do! Proud to have given my bit to humanity!
Happy Engineers' Day!!
