Doctors pass buck, boy dies on dad’s shoulder
12-year-old was suffering from high fever; probe is on
The Akhilesh government in Uttar Pradesh, on Tuesday ordered a probe into allegations that a 12year-old boy was denied timely treatment in Kanpur even as his father ran from hospital to hospital, carrying the ailing son on his shoulder.
The boy died without treatment on Monday.
Uttar Pradesh health minister Ravidas Mehrotra said that two inquiries had been set up at different levels and those responsible for denying treatment to the boy would not be spared.
In heart-wrenching visuals from Kanpur, a 12-yearold boy is seen hanging limply on the shoulders of his father, who is hurrying, apparently to a children’s ward.
The father, Sunil Kumar, has alleged that his son Ansh died on his shoulder, even as he tried to get a doctor to attend to the boy urgently.
“My son was in Class 6 and very intelligent. He had high fever since the past two days and was being initially treated at private clinics. I took him to a local hospital but they asked me to take him to the government hospital,” the father told the media.
Mr Kumar, a mechanic, said that he waited for 30 minutes at the emergency ward of the governmentrun Hallet hospital, the biggest in the city, before he was allegedly told to take the boy to the children’s section some 200 metres away.
The doctors did not even examine the child and the father was not even provided a stretcher to carry the child. He carried the boy on his shoulder to the other section.
At the children’s section, he was told that the boy was dead, that he would have survived if he was brought earlier. “It took me nine minutes .... how could he be dead in just nine minutes?” the father asked, sobbing bitterly.
The Hallet hospital now claims that the child was dead when his father brought him.
ANSH had high fever since the past two days and was being initially treated at private clinics. His father then took him to a local hospital but he was asked to take him to the government hospital.