With no stretcher available, man dies outside hospital in UP

Shahjahanpur, Sep 7 (IANS) A 25-year-old man succumbed to his injuries after being made to wait for more than an hour outside a government medical college in Uttar Pradesh's Shahjahanpur district as there was no stretcher available.

The family alleged that no stretcher was provided to carry the patient to the trauma centre of the medical college and they had to wait for over an hour at the college premises.

The doctors too, were not available.

The victim Raju Verma had fallen into an open drain on Tuesday and was rescued by a home guard on duty.

The home guard sent him home in an e-rickshaw. His brothers Deepak and Kamal then rushed him to the government medical college.

Deepak said, "Upon reaching medical college, we requested the staff for a stretcher but nobody paid heed to us. After waiting for around half an hour we took him to the gate of the trauma centre inside the college premises and laid him down on the floor  but no medical staff came to attend to my brother despite repeated requests. After a few minutes he passed away."

Speaking about the incident, principal of the medical college, Dr Rajesh Kumar, said that due to the high number of patients at the trauma centre on Monday there was no bed available at the time.

"Beds in the ICU were full and some patients were lying on stretchers too. Not even a single stretcher was available at the time patient Raju arrived," principal told reporters.