In a shocking incident, a woman gave birth to a dead baby on a road near lakshman Sidh temple here in wee hours of Thursday. Incident occurred at a distance of less than 15 kilometres from Dehradun city and family members of the woman claimed that the 108 ambulance service took about 3 hours to arrive on the spot.
Naek Bibi, wife of Mohammad Shafi, lives in the forest near laxman Sidh temple. The Van Gujjar family claims that the condition of pregnant woman experienced labour pain around 12.30 am on Thursday after which the family gave a distress call to local Asha worker.
“My wife started bleeding profusely around 3 am and I informed Asha worker Geeta Devi and asked her to arrange ambulance so that she could be taken to hospital. On a cot, we took her to lakshman Sidh temple which is about 1 km from our home and waited for the ambulance. Around 5.30 am, my wife gave birth to a dead baby boy. The ambulance finally arrived at around 6.15 am and my wife was taken to Doiwala hospital from where she was discharged on Thursday evening,'' said Mohammad Safi.
Had the ambulance arrived on time, the baby could have been alive, he rued. Safi said that he had called 108 emergency ambulance on Wednesday as well and took his pregnant wife to Doiwala hospital where he was told that the delivery is at least ten days away.
Asha worker Geeta Devi told The Pioneer that after receiving call from Safi for ambulance she called the 108 service at 3 am however Safi called again and said that they would take Naek to hospital when after sun rise.
She claimed that the ambulance arrived around 6 am after she called for it at 5 am. Geeta said that the woman was examined on previous day by a nurse, who advised the family to take her home.
When contacted, State head of 108 ambulance service Manish Tinku said, "At 3.01 am we received a call from the Asha worker on which the ambulance of Doiwala was assigned the task at 3.06 am. However at 3.17 am, we again received a call from Asha worker telling us to cancel the ambulance. At 5.14 am again, we got a call and at 6.04 am, an ambulance from city was assigned the task as Doiwala ambulance was busy on another emergency.''
Chief Medical Officer of Dehradun Dr YS Thapliyal said that he has set up an inquiry panel headed by Deputy CMO Dr Bhagirathi Jangpangi to probe into the incident.