No end to plight: Patient carried on makeshift stretcher for 2 km in absence of motorable road

People living in remote villages in Odisha continue to suffer due to lack of basic infrastructure like roads with the latest instance being reported from Nayagarh district.

Shocking pictures emerged from Sadabhuin village under Dasapalla block where a patient was carried on a makeshift stretcher for 2 km due to the unavailability of a motorable road connecting the village.

The incident reportedly occurred on Thursday when Sadhu Charan Majhi from Sadabhuin village fell sick and needed immediate medical care. His family members called an ambulance but it could not reach their village because the village does not have a motorable road.

Without wasting any more time, Majhi’s family made a makeshift stretcher with a cot and carried him on their shoulders for two kilometres to the nearest road. They hired an auto-rickshaw from there and took him to Dasapalla Community Health Centre.

The authorities could not be contacted for comments on this matter.

It is pertinent to mention here that road communication in several areas in Odisha has gone from bad to worse, to the extent that the ambulances are finding it hard to reach many villages forcing the patients to be carried on stretchers for long distances.

In a similar instance, a youth at Sanakhaliamali village under Sambalpur’s Rairakhol block who had critically injured himself by falling from a tree, had to be carried on shoulders to the hospital on January 24 for one kilometre without a motorable road.

A similar kind of situation had arisen three days back, when a pregnant woman, Rashmirekha Naik from the same village was forced to be carried in exactly the same way.