Ambulance denied carrying the dead body

Bihar, March 10: An awful incident that happened at the sadar hospital in north Bihar district headquarters town of Muzaffarpur on Thursday.

While coming to details, An Odisha tribal Dana Manjhi, who was a resident of Shivapuri, carrying on his shoulder the body of his wife, after being denied a vehicle to carry it to his village for her last rites.

The husband of a female patient, who died late on Tuesday evening, had to carry her dead body for nearly 500 meters before they could hire an autorickshaw after the hospital administration failed to provide an ambulance or a mortuary van, to take the body home.

The woman, Shyama Devi, had been admitted to the Muzaffarpur Sadar hospital for treatment on February 18. However, she succumbed to her ailment on Tuesday evening, according to her husband, Suresh Mandal, a resident of Shivpuri colony of the town, who is a daily wage laborer.



Mandal told reporters his wife was admitted to the intensive care unit of the hospital, where she breathed her last on Tuesday evening.

"Thereafter, we pleaded with the hospital administration to provide us an ambulance to carry her body to my rented house, but the authorities refused," he said.

"I was left with no option other than to carry my wife’s body on foot with the help of some of my relatives to a place where we could hire an auto-rickshaw. This, too, proved difficult as none was ready to carry a dead body. Finally, a kind-hearted auto-rickshaw driver agreed to help me," he said.

Dr. NK Chaudhury, deputy superintendent of the hospital, said he had no information about the incident.

"However, I should make clear that ambulance is provided to carry a patient to another hospital and not to transport a dead body," he stated.

However, Muzaffarpur civil surgeon Dr. Lalitha Singh had a different version of the incident.

"Yes, I have been informed about the matter. The driver of the mortuary van was absent. So, the vehicle could not be given. But we made arrangements for hiring an auto-rickshaw from hospital funds," she said.