BHUBANESWAR : For a woman under trial prisoner (UTP) lodged at the Aska sub jail in Ganjam district, the imprisonment has proved to be an unlikely boon. Her one and half year-old baby daughter has found a new life, thanks to the timely intervention and facilitation of advanced surgery at Bangalore by the jail officials and the district health administration.
The woman accused of killing her husband has been in the jail along with her daughter for the last four months. While the girl was suffering from fever frequently, the jail authorities admitted her to a hospital where she was diagnosed with a hole in her heart, a congenital condition.
Doctors then apprised the jail officials about Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) scheme under National Rural Health Mission and advised them to contact the district programme manager in this connection. The district programme manager processed the case and as the child was to be taken outside Odisha for treatment, he asked the jail officials to get the approval from the State government.
Accordingly, the Director General of Prisons Santosh Kumar Upadhyay wrote to the government following which, the jail officials got permission to shift her to Bangalore for a heart surgery. Ganjam SP deployed three police personnel to escort the mother and daughter to Bangalore.
They were also accompanied by jail officials and an NRHM pharmacist. The girl was admitted to the hospital in Bangalore on January 30 and the surgery was performed 15 days after an infection was brought under control. “As the girl still had infection post-surgery, she was kept under observation and discharged on Friday after she was completely cured,” said an official of Aska sub-jail. They will reach Berhampur on Monday.