Sans stretcher, Bihar man carries ill mom on his back

BUXAR/PATNA: A man had to carry his ailing mother on his back at the Buxar sadar hospital on Thursday as a stretcher was not made available to him.

A resident of Sohani Patti locality in Buxar town, 35-year-old Vijay Kumar had taken his octogenarian mother to the hospital for treatment of respiratory disorder. The doctor -on- duty in the OPD (outpatient department) asked him to bring her to his chamber upstairs for a check-up.

Vijay alleged the hospital staff turned deaf ears to his repeated requests to get him a stretcher. “As my mother’s condition deteriorated, I turned panicky. I put my mother on my back and sort of ran to the doctor’s chamber,” he said.

The doctor referred the woman to the Patna Medical College & Hospital (PMCH), but Vijay’s calls to 102 ambulance service reportedly went unanswered. “I called social activist Ramji Yadav whom I know. It was only after he arrived and called local mediapersons that the hospital administration made available an ambulance for the ageing patient,” he said.

Taking cognizance of the matter, Buxar DM Arvind Kumar Verma has served a show-cause notice to the district civil surgeon. “Strict action will be taken against those found responsible for this negligence,” Verma told TOI in Buxar and added he would not tolerate such dereliction of duty.

When contacted, civil surgeon Dr D N Thakur said on Friday he had sought a report from the hospital’s deputy superintendent. “The report says the man was told about the place from where he would get a stretcher, but he was in a hurry and preferred to carry his patient on his back,” Dr Thakur said and claimed he was provided an ambulance immediately.

In a similar incident last month, a man in a viral video was seen carrying his infant along with an oxygen cylinder after the PMCH administration allegedly failed to provide him a stretcher. No action was taken in this connection as the man later signed an undertaking of sorts, saying his child was not neglected by the hospital administration.

Courtesy: TNN