Army officer steps in to save woman’s life

An Army officer helped to save the life of a female public sector employee who suffered a heart attack while traveling by bus from Puttalam to Kurunegala recently.

The officer had intervened immediately and given first aid to the woman with the help of a female hospital worker from a private hospital travelling in the bus and thereafter taken steps to admit her to the Anamaduwa Hospital.

The female officer who suffered the heart attack was attached to the Land Division of the Kuliapitiya Divisional Secretariat

She had attended a session held at the Puttalam District Secretariat and was returning home on a SLTB bus when she fell ill while passing the Kottukachchiya area.

There were nearly 60 officers and female officers on the bus who were returning home after working in public and private institutions in Puttalam.

However, it was the Army officer who volunteered to help. He had advised the female hospital worker on providing the first aid.

Attempts to obtain the service of the 1990 ambulance were also futile as there was a delay.

The Army officer had called a friend who had a vehicle and taken the patient in that vehicle to the Anamaduwa hospital.

Medical staff at the hospital said that if the patient had been delayed by a further 20 minutes her life would have been at risk.

A hospital spokesman said that the army officer waited until the woman's husband arrived at Anamaduwa Hospital from Wariyapola before leaving.

People who witnessed the incident say that it is commendable that the army officer intervened and saved her life when many people who were traveling in the bus were silent at the time of this incident.

The Army officer was identified as Major Sugath Rajakaruna of the 4th Sri Lanka Infantry Regiment and is currently the Staff Officer of the Army Apprentice Training Center in Puttalam.

He is a resident of Anamaduwa Surakkulam.

By Hiran Priyankara Jayasinghe