Two pregnant women in Uttar Pradesh have died over the past 48 hours after failing to get an ambulance, with one case linked to the government’s strained coffers while in the other the husband made a last-ditch but futile attempt to carry his wife gasping for oxygen on a pushcart.
Sone Kunwari, 32, of Sonbhadra district died of excessive bleeding during childbirth on Friday night after a futile wait for five hours for an ambulance. Government source said later that many contract workers, among them ambulance drivers and helpers, have stopped work as the government had not paid them salary for three months owing to a cash crunch aggravated by the pandemic.
In Barabanki district, Puja Sharma, 30, died of post-delivery complications on Thursday while being taken to a hospital from a community health centre by her husband in a pushcart that he had hired after waiting for an ambulance for two hours. A doctor said both ambulances of the community health centre had already left with other patients.
Sone’s husband Rama Shankar told reporters at Parani village in Sonbhadra, 370km east of state capital Lucknow, on Saturday: “After my wife went into labour, I had dialled 102 (the emergency number to call an ambulance), but none picked up the phone for two hours. When someone finally received the call, he said an ambulance would be sent in 20 minutes. None came, and when I called up the number again, I was told to wait another two hours. No ambulance arrived and my wife died after giving birth.”
Rama, a Dalit, said local Asha worker Reena Devi had been with the distressed couple throughout but could not save Sone.
“We are supposed to call the emergency health service number for immediate assistance. But nobody responded properly to our calls. Sone Kunwari died of excessive bleeding but her baby is fine,” Reena said.
Village panchayat chief Manoj Yadav said he had sent a jeep as soon as he came to know about the crisis. “But she could not be saved. She was declared dead on arrival at the Myorpur community health centre (CHC). It is a sad incident. She would have lived had she received timely medical assistance. It is a damning statement on the poor health services in Uttar Pradesh, where the government thinks there is no health issue left to be addressed in the state except Covid-19,” he said.
Dr Shishir Srivastava, the superintendent of the Myorpur CHC, said: “The woman was brought dead to the hospital. The emergency ambulance service provided through 102 is monitored from a control room in Lucknow. We have come to know that the ambulance didn’t reach the village. I will write to the government about this lapse.”
A senior health department official in Lucknow said on the condition of anonymity: “Many ambulance drivers and paramedical staff have not got their salaries for the past three months. Recently, they had organised protests at several places. Many contract workers have stopped working out of anger.”
The government sources said payment of salaries of contract workers had become irregular because of a cash crunch that had worsened because of the economic slowdown caused by the pandemic.
In Barabanki, 28km east of Lucknow, Devraj Sharma of Surajpurva village said his wife Puja had been admitted to the CHC in Mathuranagar village nearby where she gave birth at 9.05am on Thursday.
“Soon, the doctor referred her to the district women’s hospital as there were some complications and she required oxygen. We kept calling the emergency ambulance number (102) as none was available at the health centre. But no ambulance came for two hours. Then I rented a pushcart to carry her to the hospital 5km away but she died on the way, gasping for breath and bleeding profusely,” Devraj said.
A doctor at the Mathuranagar CHC said on condition of anonymity that there was no oxygen cylinder at the health centre and both ambulances of the facility had already left with other patients.
