Alok Kumar Sen, a 7-year-old differently-abled boy of Baripada, is presently in deep distress. The irony is that the poor boy, born of poor parents, was quite normal at the time of his birth, but was rendered seriously handicapped allegedly due to medical negligence.
Alok, son of Ravi Sen and Bhagavati Sen of Ward No.5, Baripada, was born here in the District Headquarters Hospital (DHH) ( now PRM Medical College) on January 23, 2010. He was then normal in every respect and was also administered all the required vaccines in time.
But when he was only 6 months’ old, his parents took him to the famous Baripada Rathyatra, and, on return from this car festival, he was found to be developing some problems like vomiting and fainting. He was then immediately rushed to the local DHH, then to the SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack, where he remained under treatment for meningitis from July 23, 2010 to August 3, 2010.
Unfortunately, immediately after his return from Cuttack, the child started showing negative signs of bending of the spinal cord, hands and legs. This happened because the case was mishandled at the SCB and some fluid was wrongly extracted from his spinal cord by some indifferent doctors there, the child’s parents alleged. Ever since, Alok’s condition has been dangerously deteriorating.
The child now needs to be provided immediate treatment in Apollo or similar other hospital, which the poor parents of Alok are not able to afford. Alok’s father Ravi, therefore, has already approached the district authorities to do the needful. But no concrete measures have been taken so far in this regard.