Odisha Chief Minister Hon’ble Shri Naveen Patnaik Launches Statewide Lifesaver Bystander CPR Project
February 2, 2023, was a historic day in the State of Odisha as the Honorable Chief Minister, Shri Naveen Patnaik, launched a statewide Bystander CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) with AED (Automated External Defibrillator) Training Project at the Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneswar, Odisha. The mission is to save thousands of lives during Sudden Cardiac Arrests annually in the State.This is the first State-instituted lifesaver program in India.
Dr. Vemuri S Murthy, an Indo-US resuscitation expert involved with community CPR programs in India and the USA for over two decades, is the Founder of the project.
Dr. Murthy is an adjunct faculty affiliated with the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, and is a veteran volunteer and International Training Center faculty of the American Heart Association. He is also a Visiting Professor at Indian Medical Institutions such as AIIMS and contributed to the mandatory resuscitation training in Medical Colleges of Dr.NTR University of Medical Sciences, Andhra Pradesh (2012). He also did ground-breaking research in Cardiac Arrest registries in India, working closely with distinguished Indian peers such as Dr. Srinivas Ramaka from the Telangana State.
The organizations affiliated with the program include Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organization, Odisha, Sri Jagannatha Service Foundation, Odisha, American Heart Association, and All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar. The 9-hour program trained about 2400 participants, including 1000 Odisha Police personnel,600 women, and others. The project aims to train about 200,000 Odisha state residents by the end of 2025.
It’s hoped that similar life-saving projects will be initiated in other States in India soon.
