A 20-year-old pregnant woman from Rajkhad village in Jharkhand’s Palamu district had to be taken on a wooden cot across the flooded Dhuria river as repeated calls for an ambulance to take her to hospital went unanswered.
A video of the incident, which has gone viral on social media, showed around six men wading through the strong currents while carrying the woman on their shoulders. The incident took place on Monday evening.
The family alleged that neither medical authorities nor police responded to multiple calls, after which they were forced to carry her across the river and then take her to the nearest community health centre, about 22 km away, in a private vehicle.
The Indian Express reached out to local medical authorities and police, but they were unavailable for comment.
The woman gave birth at the hospital and both mother and child are safe, doctors said.
The woman, identified as Champa Kumari, had gone into labour on Monday evening, said her nephew, Ravikant Kumar Ravi. “She suddenly complained of severe abdominal pain. We called for an ambulance repeatedly, from at least five different mobile phones, but no one picked up. Even calls to the civil surgeon’s office and the local hospital did not go through. At one point, we even tried to reach the Bisrampur police in charge, but his phone went unanswered,” Ravi told The Indian Express.
With no vehicle available, the family and neighbours placed Kumari on a cot. “We had to cross nearly 300 metres of chest-deep water in the Dhuria river. After that, we carried her another 1.5 km on foot before managing to book a private vehicle to reach the community health centre, which is 22 km away. After reaching the hospital, we found two ambulances standing there,” Ravi said.
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“If we had been even half an hour late, both mother and child might not have survived,” he said.
This is not the first such incident from Rajkhad. The absence of a bridge over the Dhuria river has forced residents to wade through dangerous waters for decades. “Every monsoon, the river swells and cuts us off. Children cannot go to school for months, patients have to be carried on cots, and even marriage proposals get cancelled from our village as we have poor connectivity. For 10–15 years, we have been demanding a bridge from MLAs and MPs, but nothing has been done,” Ravi said.
Local said they had submitted memorandums twice to a former MLA and twice to an MP, but that their demand was ignored. “This is our everyday reality. We have carried people like this many times before. This is not the first case,” Ravi said.
