Kupwara family alleges snow-covered road, lack of medical support forced child’s death

Kupwara, Feb 21: A pregnant woman in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district gave birth to a child while she was being taken to a hospital on a makeshift cot. The child died after delivery.

The incident occurred on Wednesday in Sarkoli, Danmi Bala village of Kalaroose, where a woman after developing labour pain was being carried on a makeshift cot to a hospital but after covering several kilometres, the woman delivered the baby midway at Kanipora.

One of her close relatives said that soon after they came across that the woman had developed labour pain, they sought help from the neighbours and relatives to shift her to the hospital.

Without losing any time, the villagers wrapped her in a blanket and carried her on a makeshift cot by covering several kilometers on foot to reach the road from where they could avail transport facilities to take her to the hospital.

“Non clearance of snow from the road of our village gave rise to the situation and we were compelled to shift the woman on foot. In fact we called the 108 ambulance but the vehicle didn’t turn up,’ said a local.

District Development Council (DDC) Member Kalaroose Chowdhary Mustafa Rahie said that an ambulance with chains has been kept available at Primary Health Centre (PHC) Kalaroose to deal with the emergencies but that was not contacted.

He refuted the claims of locals that the snow has not been cleared on Danmi Bala road.

Meanwhile Block Medical Officer (BMO) Kalaroose Dr Nazir Ahmad told Greater Kashmir that an advisory was issued in wake of snowfall to all expecting mothers of upper reaches in Kalaroose Medical Block to shift to plain areas to thwart any untoward incident.

“With regard to this particular case, her husband was informed three days ago to shift to a shelter home established by district administration at Kalaroose but he didn’t listen,” he said.

On being asked about non-availability of a doctor at Health Centre Sarkoli, he said that there was no provision of a doctor at Health and Wellness centre anywhere. He said that FMPHW and MLHP employees were posted at Health and Wellness centre Sarkoli who were performing duties efficiently.