Malkangiri: Even though the Government has made adequate provisions for facilitating hassle-free and institutional delivery of pregnant women across the state, impassable road facility still eludes the remote villages and hilly terrains of this tribal-dominated district for which ambulances are unable to arrive at the doorstep for emergent medical needs.
Very often reports of patients being transported very far on slings, cycle or human back hog the headline and yet another pregnant women had to be transported on sling followed by her delivery midway.
The latest incident has been reported from remote Padalput village of Nilakamberu gram panchayat under Korukonda block.
Dhana Muduli’s pregnant wife Devaki suffered labour pain for which the family members, assisted by a few fellow villagers, were transporting her to the far away Balimela-based medical facility as the ambulance couldn’t venture into the unreachable village. Devaki delivered a baby girl midway while being transported on the sling. On the other hand, the 108 ambulance and Asha Didi were ironically waiting for them helplessly below the hill for service.
Aggrieved husband Dhana Muduli rued, “As there’s no road facility, delivery patients are facing lots of trouble. This patient is my wife. She delivered a baby midway 100 metres away from our village. We were transporting her to Balimela. We had phoned the ambulance, but there is no passage for it. Such an inconvenience is for a long stretch of 5 km and we are bound down to carry the patient on the sling.”
A fellow villager also complained, “There is no thoroughfare in our four remote villages. No vehicle can venture into. We have to walk down 5-7 km. We’re forced to carrying delivery patients on the sling. When we were transporting this patient, she delivered a baby girl midway.”