Denied ambulance, Patna man walks home carrying daughter's body on shoulder

NEW DELHI: A man in Bihar's Patna was forced to carry his 9-year-old daughter's body on shoulder after being allegedly denied an ambulance by a government hospital, in yet another case of medical apathy in the country.

Raushan Kumari, suffering from high fever for six days, died near the Outdoor Patient Department of Patna's All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)on Tuesday.

According to the family, the girl died while her poor father completed the formalities for her treatment and an official posted at the counter refused to help him.

Her father Rambalak and his wife, residents of Kajra village in Lakhisarai district, brought her to AIIMS, following which he was directed by the staff to get a "parcha" (registration card) made at the OPD counter.

As Rambalak, a daily wager, stood in the queue at the counter, his wife told him the girl's condition had deteriorated. As Rambalak pleaded with people standing in a long queue to allow him to get the formalities completed out of turn, no one paid heed. He even pleaded with the clerk deployed at the counter, but was asked to come in queue.

To add to his agony, the distraught man was allegedly not even provided an ambulance by AIIMS officials to ferry the body to his village. With little money on his person, he carried his daughter's body on his shoulder for nearly four km to an auto-rickshaw stand at Phulwari Sharif in Patna.

AIIMS Director Dr Prabhat Kumar Singh said he had no information that a critical patient had died due to lack of treatment.

"As far as a 'parcha' is concerned, doctors treat critical patients without it and later their registration is done. But I will inquire into this case if it has happened," he said, adding, "I am unable to understand what has happened. In fact, nobody there came to know about it, how is it possible?"


On June 13, a man had to carry his dead niece on a bicycle after being denied ambulance by a government run hospital.

Meanwhile, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad flayed the Nitish Kumar government for its "apathy towards the poorest of the poor" which, he claimed, led to the girl's death, and demanded a high-level probe.

"Everything has collapsed in Bihar, including law and order, education, and health. The latest incident of the girl's death at Patna AIIMS vindicates our stand. There is no facility for the poor for treatment -- they have been left to die, as happened in this case."

He also took a dig at Union Minister of State for Health Ashwani Kumar Choubey, who last week reportedly suggested that patients from Bihar should be treated at Patna's AIIMS and not in AIIMS at Delhi.

Choubey's alleged remark about Biharis "crowding" AIIMS at Delhi even for minor ailments had drawn criticism from opposition parties.

Lalu Prasad said: "Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi have no time for genuine health issues. Both are busy showing their faces in the media, more or less on the lines of Prime Minister Narendra Modi."

"Girls are dying for want of 'bhat'(rice) in Jharkhand and lack of treatment in Bihar," the RJD chief remarked while referring to the death of 11-year-old Santoshi Kumari in Simdega district in neighbouring Jharkhand due to starvation.

(with agency inputs)