KOLKATA: Peerless Hospital, which runs an exclusive clinic for trans people, on Thursday conducted a workshop to train members of the third gender community in basic life support (BLS).
Twenty transpersons attended the workshop and received BSL certificates at the end of it. “Basic life support generally refers to the type of care that first-responders, healthcare providers and public safety professionals provide to people so that they can revive anyone who is experiencing cardiac arrest, respiratory distress or an obstructed airway. Before the pandemic, Peerless Hospital has imparted this training to Kolkata Police, Navy personnel and teachers of various schools,” said Subrojyoti Bhowmick, clinical director, who is in charge of Antar, the state’s first health clinic exclusively for the transgender community, housed at Peerless Hospital.
Bhowmick added, “Since I visit Garima Griha to support the transpersons in distress, I realized this sort of formal training is all the more necessary for them.” Garima Griha is the city’s first safe home for transgenders. The Union ministry of social justice and empowerment has tied up with Gokhale Road Bandhan, a city-based support group for transgender people, to set up the safe home for abandoned transgender people.
Ranjita Sinha, secretary of Gokhale Road Bandhan and Association of Transgender/Hijra in Bengal (ATHB), said, “This is the first time a training as important as this has been given to transpersons, who are often victims of transphobia that deprives them of immediate medical attention.”
“The training becomes more relevant in times of pandemic when doctors are avoiding home visits and physical contact with patients,” Bhowmick said, adding the Garima Griha inmates received hands-on orientation on BSL with the help of mannequins. Led by Indranil Dasgupta, head of the department of emergency medicine, an American Heart Association-recognized training centre for BLS and advanced cardiac life support, the transpersons were shown how a person with cardiac arrest could be helped, using automated external defibrillators and relieving airway obstructions.
