A Class XI girl died for lack of treatment after falling off a Ferris wheel during a joyride at Kumirmari Island in South 24-Parganas on Wednesday, making the absence of critical health and trauma care facilities in the remote Sunderbans delta painfully evident.

Sayantoni Mondal, 17, who suffered fatal head and shoulder injuries after she fell off the joyride, got no proper medical attention locally and had to be rushed to a private hospital in Calcutta that entailed a four-hour journey, including one-and-a-half-hour boat ride from Kumirmari Island in Gosaba to Dhamakhali.

She succumbed to her injuries on the way to the Calcutta hospital, where doctors declared her death on arrival.

“The Calcutta hospital where the injured girl was taken was at least 125km from the place of the accident. Sayantoni’s death bared the lack of specialised medical care to handle serious cases in rural and semi-urban areas,” said a Kumirmari resident.

On Tuesday afternoon, Sayantoni, a student of Kumirmari High School, fell off the ride shortly after it began to rotate. Local sources said the Ferris wheel had been set up as part of a five-day cultural festival that had drawn a large crowd, who also gathered to watch a performance of a Tollywood star.

According to police and eyewitnesses, the teenager fell when she was trying to take a standing selfie in the middle of the joyride.

“As the ride was rotating at high speed, she suddenly lost balance and collapsed. The guard railing broke in the impact of her fall. She was thrown far into the crowd from a height of about 50 feet and suffered fatal head injuries. A relative accompanying her on the joyride fell, but survived with minor injuries,” an eyewitness recounted.

The losing battle to save her life began after her fall.

An unconscious Sayantoni was first taken to a local quack, who placed her under oxygen support for some time and administered medicines.

When his intervention did not work, police arranged a special speedboat from the forest department to transport her to the Dhamakhali boat ghat for further transfer to Calcutta, following an appeal by the girl’s family.

With no critical health care or trauma facilities in Gosaba block, her family decided to take her to Calcutta, but she did not survive the four-hour journey across water and land.

Family members expressed their helplessness as the lack of medical facilities led to the death of the teenager.

“She suffered severe head injuries and was unconscious. There is no medical facility in our village. The nearest health care centre is the Chotomollakhali Rural Health Centre on another island. It was pointless to take her there or even to Gosaba Block Hospital, a two-hour boat ride away, as these don’t have the infrastructure to handle such critical patients. We decided to take her to Calcutta as fast as possible via Dhamakhali. The police arranged a boat for us,” a relative of the girl said.

An officer from the Sunderbans Coastal Police Station supported the family’s decision but advised them to take her to Canning Sub-Divisional Hospital first, a suggestion they ignored.

“Such critical situations require specialised treatment, but we feel helpless in the Sunderbans. Canning Hospital, which is about an hour’s journey from Dhamakhali after a two-hour boat ride, is the only better option nearby,” the officer said.

However, district administration sources pointed out that Canning Hospital lacks the infrastructure to handle critical head injuries.

The girl’s relatives decided to take her to a large private hospital in south Calcutta through Malancha and Basanti Highway, bypassing government medical facilities at Ghatakpukur, Sarberia and Bantala, as well as several smaller private hospitals, which they again felt lacked the infrastructure to treat critical head injuries.

Gosaba’s Trinamool MLA Subrata Mondal acknowledged the lack of critical health care in the delta.

“Things have improved, but not enough to handle such emergencies. Apart from a shortage of doctors and infrastructure, communication is a major hurdle. As a result, people feel helpless,” Mondal said. “However, we must be more cautious.... The administration should not permit high-risk rides in the Sunderbans since any accident could turn fatal in the absence of proper medical facilities,” he added.

Mondal called for a ban on Ferris wheels and other such high-risk joyrides, particularly in remote areas of the Sunderbans where medical facilities are either non-existent or difficult to access due to the region’s riverine terrain and poor communication facilities.

Police have arrested Amal Mondal, the owner of the Ferris wheel, and charged him with causing unintended death.