An expectant mother from Odisha's Rayagada district in India was compelled to deliver her baby on the roadside as there was no availability of an ambulance on January 28.
Golnapi Hikaka, one of the family members of the woman, called up the 102 Ambulance that was approachable under Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) once she started having labor pains.
"Despite they waited for over four hours, there was still no turn up of an Ambulance," said family members.
Having left with no available options, they took the woman to Kalyansinghpur Community Health Centre (CHC). However, she delivered the baby on the way. The family claims that they waited for hours yet no ambulance arrived at their place. As the woman's condition was deteriorating, her family members were compelled to make her walk up to the nearest medical center.
"The women had delivered the baby when the ambulance reached the spot and an ASHA was present with the women," said S.P Padhy, Rayagada, Chief District Medical Officer. Both mother and child are sound and stable.
"We are taking care of them. They will stay at the hospital for 48 hours as per the norms," said Padhy.
This happens to be another case of medical apathy in Odisha and this definitely is not the first one. Apparently, the ambulance failed to arrive at the woman's place on time. Adding to the sorry state of ambulance service in Odisha, in 2016, a pregnant woman died as the ambulance arrived late. In the same year, a man had to carry his expecting wife on his shoulders to take his wife to the nearby hospital. In a more unfortunate incident, a man had to carry the body of his wife nearly 12 km as the hospital failed to provide the man and his deceased wife an ambulance. Sadly enough, these are not the only cases of medical negligence where patients had to lose their lives due to lack of availability of ambulance in Odisha. There are more.
