Although Basic Life Support (BLS) Workshop has been held in Muhammad Medical College & Hospital (MMC&H) for a very long time on an informal and “as required” basis for as long as it has existed, this workshop has taken the formal and regular form 16 years ago under the leadership of Professor Dr Syed Zafar Abbas.
As a certified Instructor of BLS workshop with United Kingdom Resuscitation Council (UKRC), in the capacity of Visiting Professor of Medicine, Dr Zafar Abbas conducted the Annual BLS Workshop at Mrs Razia Ali Muhammad Memorial Auditorium on 28th April 2025. This workshop was mandatory for all the Final year Medical students of MMC to attend as part of their curriculum, and all other relevant students were invited to attend such as from Muhammad Dental College (MDC), Physiotherapy Institute and all junior and senior clinical and non clinical faculty of MMC. Additionally, as always, doctors from city of Mirpurkhas were invited to attend, including members of Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), doctors from Civil Hospital Mirpurkhas and all private hospitals in the city. A sizable number of invitees made efforts and attended this certificate workshop. Dr Zafar Abbas was ably assisted in conducting the workshop by Dr Saqib Baloch and Dr Hyder Ali from Ibne Sina University (ISU).
Programme started with recitation from Holy Quran, and a final year medical student Talha had the honour of reciting the verses. Then Dr Zafar Abbas gave a talk on BLS. With the help of Powerpoint slides, he gave the relevant statistics of cardiac arrest, and the success rate of BLS performed by those who were trained to do that versus those who were not. He explained the limitations and ethics of performing BLS in the situation of cardiac arrest, and explained its usefulness also. He went through the scenarios where BLS was inappropriate, and the effect of futile BLS on patients, their relatives and also the BLS providers. He then explained the procedure of performing BLS while maintaining the essentials of personal safety of providers. He took questions from the audience and kept the session interactive. He went through the Advanced Life Support (ALS) with the AED equipment made available by MMC&H also.
The theoretical part was followed by practical demonstration of BLS on a manikin with the help of equipment for breathing. Dr Zafar Abbas was helped by Dr Saqib Baloch and Dr Hyder Ali in exhibiting the BLS. The students and doctors then started coming in groups of two and had hands on practice on the manikin.
