Life Saving Foundation

Vivekanand Yoge

security guard

Shabana Azmi

Khalapur

MGM Hospital

City-based non-profit organisation reaches out to Pune police to honour the 27-year-old MSF staffOn Wednesday,, a city-based non-profit organisation, felicitated, afrom state government's security agency Maharashtra Security Forces (MSF) deployed on Mumbai-Pune expressway (eway) for assisting veteran actorafter she met with an accident on the highway on January 18. Yoge was the first one to rush to help Azmi after her car rammed into the rear of a truck neartoll plaza, around 60 km from Mumbai, on the eway.When Azmi's car met with the crash, Yoge was 2 km away from the accident spot but rushed to the site immediately without knowing who was inside the affected vehicle.He opened the rear door of the car and saw Azmi seated inside on the rear seat in an unconscious condition bleeding profusely. With the help of two other persons, he took her out of the car and laid her down on the road. In the meantime, he called an ambulance and managed the traffic as well.Yoge has served in the force for almost two years now and this was the first time that the 27-year-old security personnel was tending to a crisis situation.Devendra Pathak, the founder of Life Saving Foundation, started looking out for this young guard ever since the photo of the actress lying unconscious, with Yoge helping her out, went viral.Yoge was the first one to know about the accident and ran 2 km to reach the accident spot.Pathak first confused Yoge to be an army personnel because of the way he was dressed in a green camouflaged uniform. In order to find Yoge, he approached all the army headquarters in Maharashtra; however Pathak was disappointed after learning that he didn't belong to any of those wings.He then approachedin Panvel where Azmi was admitted initially and tracked down the ambulance that had brought the actor to the hospital. That is how Pathak got to know that Yoge is posted as a guard on the eway and works with MSF.Speaking to Mirror, Yoge said, "We have been trained to act quickly as soon as we come to know of any disaster. When the said accident took place, I didn't know it was Azmi inside the car. Had it been anyone else, I would've acted the same way.""The very purpose of our organisation is to honour such real-life heroes and encourage common people to come forward and help strangers caught in road accidents. After getting in touch with Yoge, we immediately got in touch with police commissioner K Venkatesham and arranged a felicitation ceremony," added Pathak."The young guard was awarded by Ravindra Shisve, joint commissioner of police, and we urged Yoge to keep motivating and performing his duties," he further said.