Man's CPR On Moving Vehicle Fails To Save Father In Madhya Pradesh

In the middle of a traffic jam, on the back of a rattling loader vehicle, a son knelt beside his father, pressing down on his chest again and again, his voice breaking with every plea "Papa... open your eyes. Papa, please open your eyes."

But his father never did.

Sixty-five-year-old Jagdish Vishwakarma, a resident of Talgaon under Rajnagar police station limits in Madhya Pradesh's Chhatarpur, died of a suspected heart attack in front of his son's eyes not inside an ambulance, on a moving goods vehicle stuck in city traffic.

Jagdish Vishwakarma was travelling to Chhatarpur with his son Santosh Vishwakarma when, near Barkonha village, he suddenly complained of severe chest pain and breathlessness.

"He was holding his chest. He said he couldn't breathe," Santosh recalled, still in shock. Realising the gravity of the situation, Santosh immediately dialled for an ambulance. But help did not arrive.

Minutes ticked by. His father's breathing grew heavier. Panic set in.

With no ambulance in sight, Santosh made a desperate decision. He stopped a passing loader vehicle and placed his father in the back, hoping to reach the hospital in time.

But fate had another cruel twist waiting. As the loader entered the city, it got stuck in traffic. Cars, bikes, honking horns and in the middle of it all, a son fighting against time.

Seeing his father's condition worsen, Santosh climbed into the back of the moving loader and began performing CPR.

In the jolting vehicle, amid chaos and noise, he pressed his father's chest repeatedly, counting, breathing, crying.

"Papa, open your eyes... Papa, please wake up..."

Bystanders noticed the scene and tried to help. Some attempted to clear the traffic. Others watched helplessly. But the seconds were slipping away. Santosh says he did not stop CPR even for a moment during the journey.

When the loader finally reached the hospital, Santosh lifted his father in his arms and ran inside. Doctors examined him immediately. But it was over.

His body had already gone cold. "He had died before reaching the hospital," doctors informed the devastated family.

For Santosh, the words felt unreal. Just minutes earlier, he had been calling out to his father, believing that if he kept trying, his father would respond. The family believes that if an ambulance had reached on time, Jagdish Vishwakarma's life might have been saved.

Chief Medical and Health Officer (CMHO) RP Gupta said the matter has come to his notice. "First of all, if ambulance 108 was called, why did it not arrive I am getting this investigated. I am very sorry that he suffered a heart attack and despite CPR he could not survive. If CPR is started in such a situation, there is hope of survival. I will conduct a thorough inquiry into why the ambulance did not reach," Gupta said.