BHOPAL: In a shocking incident that has exposed the sorry state of ambulance services in Madhya Pradesh, a 3-year-old critically ill girl lost her life reportedly due to oxygen shortage in the 108 Ambulance in the Rajgarh district on Friday.
The 108-ambulance service in MP is a government-backed, public-private partnership (PPP) emergency medical ambulance service (EMAS) that provides free, round-the-clock, pre-hospital emergency transportation care.
The girl was being rushed for advanced life-saving treatment from Guna district to state capital Bhopal on oxygen support, but the oxygen supply ran out, while the ambulance was passing through the Biaora area of Rajgarh district.
Efforts to get immediate oxygen support from the alternative cylinder in the ambulance didn’t help, as the second cylinder was already empty.
The ambulance staff hastily took the gasping girl to the Biaora Civil Hospital, where the doctors declared the minor as brought dead.
The deceased minor, Harshita Kushwah’s grandfather Omkar Singh Kushwah, said that the girl who was down with high fever and breathing-related problems was admitted at the district hospital in their home district, Guna on Thursday.
As her condition worsened, the minor was referred by doctors at Guna District Hospital for advanced life-saving treatment in Bhopal on Friday morning.
According to sub inspector at Biaora police station in Rajgarh district, BL Mawase, “We got a complaint from the Civil Hospital in Biaora about the death of the girl who was being rushed to Bhopal from Guna. The girl’s kin said that the oxygen supply in the ambulance ran out while the ambulance was still around 5 km from Bioara. A case has been registered against the ambulance staff and the case diary is being transferred to the concerned police station in Guna district.”