BHOPAL: In a shocking incident, a five-year-old seriously ill boy died in his mother’s arms at a government health facility in the Bargi area of Madhya Pradesh’s Jabalpur district on Wednesday.
The five-year-old Rishi Pandre, a resident of Tinheta Deori village, was brought to the Bargi health centre (47 km from his home) to get life-saving treatment.
“We came here to save his life, but there was no one to treat him here at the health centre. We kept waiting for treatment for hours but failed to get any as there was no one present at the centre. He died in his mother’s arms waiting for medical treatment,” alleged Rishi’s maternal hospital Pawan Barkade.
The Jabalpur district chief medical and health officer (CMHO) Dr Sanjay Mishra, said “Entire incident will be probed. Death audit, as well as community audit, will be conducted at the deceased child’s village.”
“As per information from the Bargi health centre, the on-duty doctor and medical officer Dr Lokesh Srivastava has said that he and a staff nurse were present at the centre when the minor was brought to the hospital. Dr Lokesh and the staff nurse claimed that the minor was brought dead to the hospital. The probe has also revealed that the family brought their son to Bargi health centre, despite it being 47 km from their village. It will be probed why they didn’t take the child to two nearby centres and got any treatment there or not,” Dr Mishra said.
“Team of doctors has been sent to the boy’s village, where all aspects will be investigated,” he said.
According to sources, the boy had suffered burns on his leg recently and was under treatment by a local medical practitioner. Later, he developed fever and other complications, after which his family brought him to Bargi health centre, despite two more health centres being close to their village.
According to the Jabalpur district CMHO, some reports of one of the government doctors arriving late at the health centre, as his wife was on fast the previous day, too are being probed.
The incident happened just a day after a man was forced to carry his pregnant wife on a hand-pushed cart to a health centre in Damoh district, after failing to get an ambulance. His wife subsequently, neither got treatment at the health centre nor at the Hatta civil hospital, but was referred to the Damoh district hospital, where she finally got treatment started a few hours later.
Reacting sharply to Wednesday’s incident, the state Congress president and ex-MP CM Kamal Nath tweeted, “The visuals of the boy having died in his mother’s arms outside the Bargi health centre in Jabalpur district are heart-rending. This exposes the real state of governance and tall claims of development by the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government.”