At about 9.30 p.m. on Saturday, March 13, Syed Amjad received a call from an unknown number. An ambulance was needed to shift Vithal Rao, a VRO, from Siddapur Colony to Surya Nursing Home at Sadashivapet as he was having high blood pressure. Covering a distance of 3 km within no time was crucial to save him. Now the patient is safe and is being treated in the hospital.
The previous day, at about 9.30 a.m responded to a call from Bilkal in Marepally mandal of Ranga Reddy district and shifted a heart patient to Malla Reddy Hospital in the capital city. Bilkal is about 15 km from Sadashivapet and Malla Reddy Hospital is a further 70 km, but the patient was saved.
This is nothing new for the 40-year-old businessman, who is into social service for the past few years. It was a personal tragedy that motivated Mr. Amjad to do something for those in life-and-death situation so that others do not have to undergo the same painful experience as he had to. “It was in 2014. On a fateful day, I had to take my sick three-month-old son from Sangareddy to Hyderabad. The ambulance service demanded ₹ 3,500 where as I had only ₹ 3,000. I lost my son forever unable to take him to hospital. Then itself I decided to provide an ambulance service in Sadashivapet and now I am able to fulfil it,” Mr. Amjad told The Hindu.
Mr. Amjad has been running the ambulance since February 6 in Sadashivapet town free of cost and so far as many as 28 patients were moved to the hospital on time. In the first month he incurred an expenditure of ₹ 33,000.
“I get great satisfaction after serving someone who is in dire need. We attend to the calls even at midnight and the wee hours. If it is midnight I myself move the patient along with driver. The ambulance is equipped with an oxygen cylinder and we even have a spare,” said Mr Amjad, who also provides food to the poor at Sadashivapet bus stand and for few months had also distributed food at the government hospital in Sangareddy. During COVID-induced lockdown Amjad distributed food for lorry drivers stuck on the highway due to the restrictions.
Those in need for ambulance in Sadashivapet can call 6300928983 or 9963102540
