Pregnant woman carried on tractor’s cultivator as ambulance fails to turn up
A pregnant woman was taken to the hospital in a cultivator pulled by a tractor after she went into labour and an ambulance failed to show up on Friday night in Madrawal village.
A pregnant woman was taken to the hospital in a cultivator pulled by a tractor after she went into labour and an ambulance failed to show up on Friday night in Madrawal village.
The incident comes just a day after a heavily pregnant woman from Samretha village trudged 6km of unpaved road and waded across a muddy canal before taking a taxi to reach a community health centre in Chhatarpur district because the government-run Janani Express ambulance for pregnant women didn’t turn up.
On Friday night, 28-year-old Vimla Yadav’s husband called the Janani Express ambulance and 108 ambulance after she started experiencing labour pains. However, he was informed that no ambulance could come due to the bad condition of roads.
After waiting for a while, Yadav decided to carry his ailing wife on a cultivator of a tractor for 10 km to reach the community health care centre at Mauganj as Madrawal has no primary health care centre.
The doctor at Mauganj referred them to the divisional hospital in Rewa and the couple was finally given an ambulance around midnight to reach there.
Divisional hospital superintendent SK Pathak said, “I am unaware about this case, but will check the records and find out if the mother and the baby are fine or not.”
The state government launched the service in 2007 with Unicef’s help to provide timely healthcare to pregnant women and sick infants in rural areas. It operates a 24/7 call centre in every district to manage requests for emergency transport for rural patients.
On July 17, a woman was forced to deliver a baby in a tonga in Khargone district as the ambulance did not come on time.
On July 16, a 23-year-old woman was forced to deliver her baby in a makeshift tent made from sarees outside the government medical institute as doctors were busy attending a meeting.
On July 5, a woman from Kareli village had no option but to commandeer a cycle rickshaw in the wee hours to ensure that her neighbour reached the district hospital on time to deliver her baby as, after waiting for hours, there was still no sign of any ambulance.