No Ambulance, Odisha Hospital Workers Break Woman’s Body At Hip To Carry It To The Railway Station

Two days after the image of a distraught man carrying the body of his dead wife for 12kms in Odisha shocked and perplexed the entire nation, another horrifying incident that exposes the lack of medical facilities in the state has come into public’s view.

Because of the non-availability of an ambulance, the hospital workers in Balasore had to break the body of an old woman who was run over by a goods train in order to fold it into a bundle and carry it for three kilometers.

The woman, Salamani Behera, 80, had died after she was run over by a goods train near Soro railway station on Wednesday morning. The Soro Community Health Centre (CHC) was handed her body and the Government Railway Policy (GRP) personnel reached the CHC 12 hours after the information was given to him.

According to ndtv, as no ambulance was available – which has been exposed as a chronic problem in these districts that are among India’s poorest – the railway police decided that the body would be sent by train. When hiring an auto-rickshaw looked expensive, the police allegedly asked a sweeper to arrange for the body to be taken to the station. By then, Ms Barik’s body had become stiff.

Apparently, to make it easier to carry the body, workers broke its bones at the hip, trussed it up and strung it to a bamboo pole before walking 2 km to the railway station.

Her son, Rabindra Barik, was shocked at the way his mother’s body was treated. Even Odisha Human Rights Commission took notice of the incident and issued a notice to the Inspector General, GRP and Balasore District Collector, asking them to order a probe and submit the report in four weeks.

“They carried my mother in a broken condition. I am helpless to do anything. I pray to the authorities for justice,” said the woman’s son Rabindra Barik to financialexpress