Five-year-old dies outside Jabalpur PHC

The district administration said that he was brought dead to the hospital

A five-year-old boy allegedly died outside a Primary Health Centre (PHC) in Madhya Pradesh’s Jabalpur due to a delay in his treatment.

While the family of the boy, Rishi Pandre, claimed that there were no doctors outside the hospital to attend to the boy who was in a critical state, the district administration said that he was already dead by the time he was taken there.

Prem Kumar, the maternal uncle of the boy, told journalists that the boy resides in Tinheta and from there, he was taken to the Bargi PHC as he was not keeping well. “But there were no arrangements. His health worsened and later he died,” said Mr. Kumar.

Refuting these allegations, Jabalpur Collector Ilayaraja.T said the boy had been brought dead to the hospital. “He had sustained burns and was undergoing treatment at the local level for 10 days. The child was brought to Bargi Hospital where a team of doctors attended on the boy. They found that the child was dead and even suggested to the parents that a post-mortem be conducted which they declined,” said Mr. Ilayaraja.

He also added that the PHC was properly equipped and had an adequate number of staff. It also had the sactioned capacity of two doctors. One of them, Dr. Lokesh, attended on the child while the other was on leave on the day of the incident. Further probe is on.

A video showing visuals of Rishi’s wailing mother with the boy in her arms had also been shared multiple times on social media. Sharing it on Twitter, former Chief Minister Kamal Nath tweeted: “Such pictures are continuously emerging from different parts of Madhya Pradesh, but instead of improving the system, those responsible are mute spectators to all this. These pictures are exposing the claims of good governance, [creating a] golden State and development of the Shivraj [Singh Chouhan] government.”