In a heart-wrenching incident, a 14-year-old girl pedalled a trolley with her injured father on it for 35 kilometres from Dhusuri Nadigaon to Bhadrak District Headquarters Hospital (DHH).
Even though the incident occurred on October 22, it came to the fore on Thursday after some journalists spotted her taking her father back home on a trolley from Bhadrak DHH. Later Bhadrak MLA and Dhamnagar’s former legislator reached the spot.
According to sources, Sambhunath Sethi, a resident of Dhusuri Nadigaon, was seriously injured in a group clash on October 22. Not being able to hire a vehicle to take her injured father to the hospital, Sambhunath’s 14-year-old daughter Sujata carried her father on a trolley and pedalled it to the Dhamnagar government hospital. On October 23, she took her father to Bhadrak DHH on the same trolley.
Today, the hospital authorities asked her to take her father back, saying he needed surgery. With no option left, she was carrying her father back home on the trolley.
Hardly had she travelled two kilometers from the DHH when some journalists spotted her pulling the trolley with her father sitting on it. On being enquired, she narrated everything before them. Later, Bhadrak MLA and Dhamnagar’s former legislator reached the spot. After coming to know about her plight, they intervened and made arrangements for her father’s treatment and stay at the DHH.
When asked, Sujata said, “A relative attacked my father over a land dispute. As we couldn’t arrange money for a van, I brought my father to Dhamnagar hospital on a trolley. Then I took him to Bhadrak hospital.”