Donna C Varghese, a 23-year-old nursing assistant in Thrissur, passed away when an ambulance she was in, met with an accident in Anthikad on Monday evening.
“She was on duty in the 108 ambulance that was on its way to pick up a patient. The ambulance hit a car and turned over at Anthikad, at about half past 7 on Monday evening. Donna, daughter of Varghese, died while the driver Ajay Kumar has survived,” says Anthikad Circle Inspector.
Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja paid condolences to Donna on her Instagram page. "I am pained to know about Donna Varghese's death. She died in an accident when the 108 ambulance was on its way towards an ailing patient, and hit a car. She has been working as Emergency Medical Technician in a 108 ambulance of the Anthikad Hospital for two weeks. I am with her relatives and colleagues in their grief. Condolences," Minister Shailaja wrote.
Donna, who lived with her parents in Peringottukara, had joined the nearby Anthikad hospital only two months ago and was put on the 108 ambulance duty two weeks ago. She was however not on COVID-19 duty. "It was following a call that came to the control room, about someone being unconscious at a house, that Donna and Ajay Kumar left on the ambulance. However, a kilometer away, a car had come from a side road and hit the ambulance, following which it lost control and collapsed into a stack of slabs, which in turn broke down the gates and doors of a house nearby. The ambulance overturned," says Shahbas, coordinator of 108 ambulances in Thrissur.
No one at the house was harmed.
Donna was conscious soon after the accident, but delirious, showing signs of internal injury. She was taken to the Aswini Hospital where she was moved to the Intensive Care Unit. "It seemed there were injuries to chest and spine and there were broken ribs. The driver, also rushed to the hospital, has injuries in his hands and legs," Shahbas says.
Donna's parents were taken on an 108 ambulance to the hospital where she breathed her last at 10 p.m.