Kin carry dead body on bike for post-mortem in Odisha

Jeypore: In yet another incident which lays bare the issues plaguing the healthcare infrastructure in Odisha; family members of a deceased youth had to carry his body to the Kundura Community Health Centre (CHC) for post-mortem allegedly after failing to get support from the local hospital authorities and an ambulance.

According to reports, a youth of Kaudiaguda village in Koraput district died after lightning struck him on Sunday. The family members could not take his body to the hospital for an autopsy on the same day as it was already late in the night. Later, on Monday the deceased youth’s kin carried his body to the hospital on a bike as they allegedly did not get any vehicle or ambulance from the hospital.

The incident has not gone down well with the locals in the area. Though there are no official provisions of ambulance service to help carry dead bodies to the hospital for post-mortem; locals said that an ambulance should have been offered at least on humanitarian grounds.

The local unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) gheraoed the hospital today after the incident came to fore and said that the hospital authorities should have made some arrangements.

Comments on the matter could not be obtained from the concerned officials and hospital staff.

A five-year-old boy from Naragam village in the district had also died due to lightning strike on the same day.