Dr. Poonam SekhonChahal
Board-trained emergency medicine physician with over ten years in high-volume tertiary care. My work sits at the sharpest edge of medicine: trauma resuscitation, airway management, critical-care stabilisation and point-of-care ultrasound — the first sixty minutes that shape everything that follows.
- 10+
- Years in emergency medicine
- Since 2011
- 8
- International certifications
- AHA · ACS · IFEM
- 4
- Languages spoken
- At the bedside
- 155
- Cases in published research
- CCT-EM thesis
A decade at the front door of the hospital — where minutes decide outcomes.
Emergency medicine is a discipline of order imposed on chaos.
Patients arrive undifferentiated and often unable to tell you what is wrong. The work is to build a picture fast, decide under uncertainty, and stabilise before the diagnosis is even confirmed — then hand over cleanly to the team who will take it from there.
Dr. Poonam Sekhon Chahal has spent more than a decade in that environment, across some of India's busiest tertiary emergency departments. She completed her Master's in Emergency Medicine at Dr. L. H. Hiranandani Hospital in Powai, Mumbai, training under the Society of Emergency Medicine, India, and now serves as senior emergency physician in the department of emergency medicine at Manipal Hospital, Patiala.
Her clinical range covers trauma resuscitation, advanced airway management, mechanical ventilation and point-of-care ultrasound, backed by certification from the American Heart Association, the American College of Surgeons and the International Federation for Emergency Medicine. She consults in four languages — a practical advantage in a department where the history is often the only diagnostic you get.
- Qualifications
Master's in Emergency Medicine (MEM)
MBBS
Higher Secondary Education
- Languages
- English · Hindi · Punjabi · Marathi
- Based in
- Patiala, Punjab
What she does in the first sixty minutes
The interventions below are the ones that change outcomes before a patient ever reaches a ward — each backed by formal certification and daily practice in a high-volume department.
Trauma & Resuscitation
ATLS-driven primary and secondary survey, haemorrhage control, and team leadership through the golden hour of major trauma.
Advanced Airway Management
Rapid sequence intubation, difficult-airway algorithms and surgical airway competence in time-critical presentations.
Point-of-Care Ultrasound
IFEM-certified PoCUS — eFAST, cardiac, lung and vascular access scanning that answers the question at the bedside, in seconds.
Cardiac Arrest Leadership
ACLS-based resuscitation, post-arrest care and running a code as team leader with clear, closed-loop communication.
Mechanical Ventilation
Initiation and titration of invasive and non-invasive ventilation, plus critical-care stabilisation before ICU handover.
Stroke & STEMI Protocols
NIH Stroke Scale assessment, thrombolysis pathways and door-to-balloon coordination where every minute is myocardium or brain.
Procedural Skills
Central venous access, intercostal drainage, arterial lines and emergency procedures performed under pressure.
Paediatric Emergencies
PALS-certified assessment and resuscitation of the critically unwell child, with weight-based dosing and family communication.
Why do patients come back within 72 hours?
Her CCT-EM dissertation examined 155 return visits to a tertiary emergency department over two years, asking a question most departments track but few interrogate.
Nearly three in ten returns were preventable — driven not by the disease, but by discharge instructions that were never understood, and by discharges that came too early.
Guided by Dr. Samrat Chavan, Head of Department & Consultant in Emergency Medicine.
Causes of 72-hour return visits · n = 155
- Disease-related recurrence37.42%
The original condition recurred after discharge.
- Disease progression33.55%
The underlying illness advanced despite appropriate initial care.
- Patient-related factors20.65%
Discharge instructions not followed or not understood — the largest genuinely preventable share.
- Physician-related factors8.39%
Premature discharge or incomplete initial assessment.
Fifteen years, one department
From house officer to senior clinician — a career built almost entirely at the front door of the hospital.
Certifications
- PoCUS
- ATLS
- ACLS
- PALS
- BLS
- NIHSS
- ECMO
- INSULIN
- 2026 — PresentCurrent
Senior Emergency Physician
Manipal Hospital, Patiala · Patiala, Punjab
- Senior clinician in a busy tertiary emergency department serving Patiala and the surrounding districts of Punjab.
- Resuscitation-room leadership across medical, surgical, trauma and paediatric emergencies.
- Bedside teaching and protocol-driven care for junior doctors and nursing staff.
- 2022 — 2026
Master's in Emergency Medicine — Trainee
Dr. L. H. Hiranandani Hospital · Powai, Mumbai
- Structured MEM training under the Society of Emergency Medicine, India (CCT-EM).
- Management of medical, surgical, trauma and paediatric emergencies in a high-volume tertiary ED.
- Point-of-care ultrasound, ventilator management and critical-care stabilisation.
- Completed a retrospective dissertation on 72-hour ED return visits.
- 2019 — 2022
Emergency Medicine Resident
Dr. L. H. Hiranandani Hospital · Powai, Mumbai
- Independently managed a high-volume emergency department across all shifts.
- Trauma resuscitation and procedural skills — intubation, central lines, chest tubes.
- ACLS and PALS-based cardiac arrest management.
- 2016 — 2017
Medical Officer
Dr. L. H. Hiranandani Hospital · Powai, Mumbai
Emergency guides, free for everyone
Most people meet a medical emergency once or twice in a lifetime, usually unprepared. These guides cover what to do in the minutes before help arrives — and, just as importantly, the well-meant myths that make things worse.
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