After the shocking video of Dana Majhi, a tribal man denied ambulance service and forced to carry his wife's body for around 10 km shocked the collective conscience of an entire country, another woman had to face similar apathy in Meerut.
A woman in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut city was forced to spend a night outside the emergency wing of the district hospital with her two-and-a-half year old child’s dead body after ambulance drivers allegedly refused to take them to their village which was in another district.
The deceased child’s mother, Imrana, claimed that she had requested doctors at the hospital for hours to get an ambulance service and, thereafter, she contacted the hospital ambulance driver, but he refused to go, stating private ambulances demanded Rs. 1,500 for the journey which she did not have.
“The ambulance asked me for Rs.1500 to take my child's dead body back home. I had called 108 to reach ambulance,” said Imrana.
The next morning, some people hired a private ambulance to take the body to her village.Soon after the shocking incident, Jagatraj Tripathi, Meerut district magistrate is reported to have ordered a probe into the matter and assured that the guilty will be punished.
This isn't the only incident highlighting the apathy of hospital authorities in our country. A few days ago, Dinabandhu Khemudu, another man in Odisha was forced to carry the body of his minor daughter as the ambulance driver refused to take the corpse to his village.
Similarly, a minor boy died in his father's arms in Kanpur after Lala Lajpat Rai Hospital denied treatment to his ailing son.
(With inputs from ANI)