VIZIANAGARAM: Villagers from Sirivara located atop a hill in Saluru mandal trudged for over 24 hours through rough terrain to carry a woman who had suffered miscarriage to the nearest hospital. The journey that began on Sunday afternoon ended only by Monday evening.
Tamarakonda Jindamma, who was carried to the Parvathipuram hospital in a dolee (a makeshift stretcher), is now out of danger, doctors said. As there are no roads or modes of transport in the woman’s village, her relatives had to take turns shouldering the dolee through hilly terrain till the nearest road located 12 km away.
They had to walk several more kilometres to reach Duggeru Junction from where vehicles could be caught. Tamarakonda collapsed while suffering the miscarriage three months prior to the scheduled date of delivery. Worried, Tamarakonda’s relatives decided to carry her to a hospital immediately, but they could reach only by Monday evening. The woman was in a state of shock when she arrived the hospital as her haemoglobin levels had dropped drastically, hospital superintendent Nagabhushan Rao said. Her condition was stabilised after she was administered medicines.
A source from the Health Department said she had not undergone any medical examination while pregnant or got her haemoglobin level tested. Several women from the village have given birth during the arduous journey to the hospital. Reacting to the tragedy, ITDA officials said they had upgraded 20 primary health centres as 24X7 hospitals and added 27 feeder ambulances to their 108-strong fleet. The NHRC has taken suo moto cognizance of the incident and asked the Chief Secretary to submit a detailed report of the issue.