‘Non-availability of ambulance’ forces man to carry body of 4-yr-old son on bike

A man in Chamariola village under Cuttack’s Salepur block was forced to carry his 4-year-old son’s body to Cuttack on bike after allegedly failing to get a hearse or an ambulance from the hospital.

As per reports, Khitish Kumar Ojha’s 4-year-old son drowned in a nearby canal on Wednesday afternoon. Locals rescued the child and rushed him to Salepur Community Health Centre (CHC). However, the doctors pronounced him 'brought dead.'

Then Khitish was asked to send the body for post-mortem to Cuttack. But despite waiting for several hours and approaching the hospital authorities, an ambulance could not be arranged for the same.

Khitish alleged that without an ambulance, he was forced to carry the body on a bike borrowed from one of his friends by which he took the body to Cuttack for post-mortem.

“My son drowned to death. But I could not find a vehicle to ferry the body. I borrowed a motorcycle from one of my friends and took his body to Cuttack,” said Khitish.

Asked about the allegation, the Superintendent of Salepur CHC, Arun Patnaik said, “I do not have any information about this. Even my colleagues and subordinates do not know anything about it. We would have helped the man in every way possible had we been informed about this.”