Bantala: In a shocking incident, a pregnant woman delivered a baby girl in a bamboo basket while being carried in a sling to Purunagad primary health centre (PHC-new) for delivery about 25 km from the district headquarters of Angul Tuesday.
Anita Pradhan, wife of Hemant Pradhan in Betar village under Saradhapur panchayat, was forced to return home midway with the newborn as family members provided them post-delivery care via traditional methods. However, no health worker was learnt to have reached the woman’s home till last reports came in.
The infant is said to be safe while the mother is in a critical condition.
The incident is indicative of the messy healthcare services prevailing in interior areas of the state and how proper healthcare continues to remain inaccessible for many while being a privilege for a few despite the district making rapid strides in industrialisation and creating a record in revenue collection.
Sources said Betar village is about 8 km from the panchayat headquarters and is a remote and inaccessible village surrounded by jungles and hills. All the villagers belong to a tribal community and depend on the jungle for their subsistence.
The villagers do not have a road connecting their village and have to travel 8 km on the hilly terrain carrying the critical patients or pregnant woman on a sling to the nearest Ogi village under Jarapada police limits. The villagers on reaching Ogi call an auto-rickshaw, 108 or 102 ambulance over phone to reach their nearest health centre at Purunagad. It has so happened that several times, pregnant women and critical patients have died en route while being ferried in a sling to Ogi village to reach the Purunagad health centre.
There have been several instances where some of the pregnant women like Kalabati Pradhan, Urmila Pradhan, Mamata Dehuri, Hadiani Behera, Kabita Behera and Ullash Pradhan were learnt to have given birth while being carried in a sling to the hospital.
Three persons have died due to diarrhoea and 30 became critical in 2012. The health officials learnt about the deaths much later and reached the village to provide medical treatment to the villagers.
Then collector Arabinda Agarwall, sub-collector Sudarshan Parida and other offcials decided to visit the village but had to return midway after the former found it hard to climb the hill. Agarwall then called a meeting and decided to construct a road to the village but it is yet to be realised.
Village president Sugriba Pradhan and secretary Siddheswar Pradhan demanded to construct a permanent road to their village. PNN