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In the past 100 years Brown Memorial Hospital has grown to become one of the most respected
medical facilities in India. From a state-of-the-art Emergency & Trauma facility to its many
Outreach clinics, Christian Medical College & Hospital (CMCH)
strives to provide quality medical care irrespective of religion, caste and community, to provide
healing & hope to the people of India in the name of Christ.
Located on Ludhiana Christian Medical College's 46 acre campus, the hospital also serves as a
training hospital for the students. It trains doctors, nurses, dentists and paramedicals to
serve the needy throughout the country. Mission hospitals in India have come to rely on CMCH to
train staff for them.
Christian Medical College & Hospital offers a wide
variety of services. There are approximately 45 different departments, many of which are
subdivided into units and specialties. The 775 beds in the hospital are assigned for various
specialties such as cardiology, pediatrics, urology, nephrology, neurosurgery, plastic surgery,
burn treatment, cardio-thoracic surgery, and others. In nine busy operating rooms, transplants,
reattachment of severed limbs, laparoscopic surgery and other specialized techniques are performed.
Today the hospital admits around 15,000 patients each year and treats over 250,000 through its
outpatient department clinics.
One of the newest departments is the
Emergency & Trauma Center.
CMCH has always responded to any existing crisis with medical expertise and human compassion. It is
with this spirit of alleviating human suffering that CMCH opened its state-of-the-art Emergency and
Trauma Center, built on guidelines of the American College of Trauma, USA. It is the first of its
kind in North India.
On the average, about 70-80 emergency cases per day are handled by the Emergency & Trauma center.
Typical injuries include severe burn cases, poisoning and industrial accidents (limb amputations).
The facility also handles 150-200 road traffic accident victims per month not only from the state
of Punjab but also from neighboring states.
One of the important challenges CMCH faces in providing trauma care is
reaching the patients quickly. There is a "Golden Hour" where statistics show that the chances of
survival are much higher if the patient receives appropriate care within the first hour following
an accident.
To help meet this need, the Rapid Response Project was
developed to provide motorcycles to function as "pre-ambulance" vehicles. With motorcycles, Emergency
Medical personnel can maneuver quickly
through the congested city streets to care for critically injured accident victims until the
ambulance arrives for transport to the hospital.
A class of 14 Emergency Medical Technicians was trained to work with this service. By September
2003 the training was completed, an emergency three digit phone number arranged, and the mobikes
up and running. The project has since been renamed AMARS - Ambulance, Mobike And Rescue Service.
Christian Medical College & Hospital also continues the work of its founder Dr. Edith Brown
by making a significant contribution for the treatment of the poor and to the health standards in
rural villages and urban ghettos.
In 1994, a "Free Care Low Cost Treatment Ward" was opened and
is entirely supported by donations from overseas. Many patients are treated free of charge or
receive substantial financial help. One person who benefited from this program was Lakshmi.
Lakshmi lived in a slum area with her two small children. She collected and sold rags for a living.
For four years her abdomen had been gradually swelling so that she always looked pregnant. No longer
able to work, she saw a number of doctors, but the problem continued. Some neighbors took her to the
free clinic at CMCH where she underwent surgery. A large ovarian cyst, weighing nine kilos (about 20
pounds), was removed. Thanks to the free care, Lakshmi was able to work again.
A large community health program serves 18,000 persons annually.
Eye camps are held, a
mobile dental unit makes the village rounds, and a school
health program provides screening and care for the large school age population.
The institution never rests on its laurels, seeking to expand its services to the poor, to increase
its medical course from 50 to 100 students, to be on the cutting edge of medical technology, and to
enhance its medical research program.
The Christian Medical College and Hospital is poised to make a significant difference in the
prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Over its history, it has continued to move patient
care development and research forward in large part because of the benevolence of concerned
individuals, foundations and organizations. Philanthropy helps to keep the CMCH's promise and
tradition of excellence in the care of sick patients.
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