Baripada: Delay in the arrival of ambulance allegedly resulted in the death of twin babies while condition of their mother was said to be critical in Karanjia block of tribal-dominated Mayurbhanj district Wednesday.
In protest against the delay, irate local people along with some people’s representatives sat in dharna at Karanjia hospital, demanding compensation for the casualties.
They also demanded immediate provision of ambulance service at the hospital and operationalisation of 50-bed MCH building.
According to reports, Basanti Digi, wife of Makuri Digi of Balibhola village, underwent labour pains in the morning. The family contacted ambulance service to shift her to Karanjia CHC, but no ambulance was available at that time. Waiting for the ambulance to arrive, she delivered twins at 10.30 am. As the babies did not react, the family members were worried even as condition of the woman worsened.
However, the ambulance finally arrived at 12.30 pm and carried the woman and the babies to the hospital where the babies were declared dead on arrival.
This triggered tension on the hospital premises.
Many local leaders and family members lay the bodies on the road and staged protests. Some officials and police tried to convince them, but the latter refused to budge from their protests.
CDMO-in-charge Dr PK Mohapatra termed the incident as unfortunate, but he attributed the death of babies to premature delivery. He added that condition of woman is stable.
