30-minute ambulance delay costs three-year-old his life at Gurgaon civil hospital

Babu was brought to the hospital on Friday as he was bleeding profusely

A three-year-old boy, who fell from a two-storey under-construction building, died on Saturday waiting for an ambulance to shift him from the Civil Hospital to Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital.

The boy,who fell from an under-construction building, was declared dead at Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital. (Parveen Kumar/HT PHOTO)

This is the second such incident after a three-month-old boy died on April 13 at the Civil Hospital as there was no fuel in the ambulance to shift him to Delhi for treatment.

Babu met with the accident in Sector 38, died as precious time was wasted waiting for ambulance to arrive at the hospital.

At around 11:30 am on Friday, Babu, was brought to the civil hospital as he was heavily bleeding.

Soon after the doctors at the civil hospital figured out that he was critical, they asked his father Ram Kishore to take Babu immediately to New Delhi.

“The child was an out-patient and was sent to Safdarjung hospital. First-aid was provided to the patient,” said Dr Pawan Chauhan, Emergency Ward, Civil Hospital.

At 12.15 pm, Babu was sent in an ambulance to Safdarjung hospital. He died on the way. He was declared brought dead by the doctors at the Safdarjung hospital.

Even as the doctors at the Civil Hospital said they had followed the procedure and treatment was provided to the boy, the father of the victim alleged that the delay in calling the ambulance resulted in his son’s death.

Neelam Thapar, deputy civil surgeon, Civil Hospital, Gurgaon, said, “We are looking into the matter and investigating it.”

Dr MP Singh, in charge for ambulance services said the delay was because the information reached them late. “The control room in the civil hospital didn’t receive any information about requirement of an ambulance. Thus, there was a slight delay,” he said.

Read I Gurgaon civil hospital has one ambulance per 500 patients

On April 13, a three-month-old boy, Abel, died at the Civil Hospital because of non availability of fuel in the ambulance which was supposed to shift the child to Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi. He breathed his last while waiting for more than two hours for the ambulance.