CPR for sudden cardiac arrest: How ordinary people in Srinagar & Bengaluru are learning to save lives

If someone suddenly collapses, is unresponsive and is not breathing normally — or is only gasping — treat it as an emergency. (Special Arrangement Photos)

8 min readOct 5, 2026 07:43 AM IST First published on: Oct 5, 2026 at 07:43 AM IST

Trekker and travel guide Mudassir had run 19 km of a marathon last year when he saw someone collapse. The other runners kept going as they wanted to complete their targets before time. Nobody stopped. Moving closer, he was surprised to find his friend, Ejaz, lying on the ground, unresponsive. He had had a sudden cardiac arrest, an episode when the heart stops suddenly. There’s usually an eight-minute window to revive and save the patient.

He began administering cardio-pulmonary resuscitation or CPR based on something he had read up in theory. By the time the ambulance arrived in an hour, he had managed to keep Ejaz’s blood and oxygen flowing to the brain and other vital organs although his heart pumping was weak. “That saved him and he got more advanced cardiac care in hospital,” Mudassir says.