K'taka shocker: Father carries daughter's corpse on moped following hospital's apathy

Karnataka [India], Feb.21 (ANI): In yet another shocking case of apathy, a distraught father carried the body of his dead daughter to the hospital in in Karnataka's Tumkur district, as there were no ambulances available. Rathnamma, a 20-year-old girl from Karnataka's Kodigenahalli village died on Monday morning, allegedly due to the government hospital as she was admitted with lack of basic medical facilities. The girl's father and her uncle took her to the Kodigenahalli Government Hospital as she was suffering from high fever on Saturday night, but no doctors were present there at that time to treat her. The family of the girl claimed that she died in the hospital due to the negligence of doctors and unavailability of ambulances. "We then took her to a private practitioner, Dr.Gopal Rao, in our village and he gave her a few medicines. Her condition got worse in the morning and she was facing trouble in breathing. We took her to Dr. Rao again in the morning and he said that she has to be hospitalized. At around 6.45 a.m., we took her back to the government hospital and the doctors were not there," said the girl's uncle Rajanna. "It was around 8.30 a.m. when my brother went to the doctor's house. The doctor told him that he would come to the hospital after breakfast. She was struggling to breathe and when the doctor arrived, he said that she needed to be taken to the Madhugiri Taluk Hospital, which is 20km away. There was no ambulance at the hospital and we were in the process of arranging a vehicle. It was too late and she passed away," he added. Rajanna further informed that it took them too long to arrange a vehicle as they did not have enough money to rent one, adding that the hospital authorities did not even help them in arranging a vehicle to carry the body. However, Kodigenahalli Zilla Panchayat member, Manjula, said that the doctors were present and that the family refused to accept help offered by several local leaders. She accepted the fact that the hospital lacks ambulance service and there is no round-the-clock medical service there. Meanwhile, the Kodigenahalli Councillor has claimed that the hospital did have an ambulance and the girl's family was 'stubborn' and did not accept any help. Several shockers like this cropped up last year, like the case of Dana Majhi from Odisha's Kalahandi, who carried his wife's dead body on his shoulders when hospital authorities denied him an ambulance. Another incident was reported from Kanpur, when an ailing son died on his father's shoulders as the hospital authorities denied him of admitting in their hospital. (ANI)