MP Shocker: 5-year-old dies in mother's arm awaiting treatment outside hospital

Jabalpur: A case of medical negligence has been reported from Madhya Pradesh, where a five-year-old child died in his mother's arm without receiving treatment at a government health center in Jabalpur district.  

The family members had taken the child to the local health center, and neither a doctor nor a medical officer attended to the child despite them waiting for several hours outside the facility. The child identified as Rishi was taken to the hospital by his father, Sanjay Padre, and other family members. However, he passed away in front of his family. 

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The family members had reportedly been waiting at the hospital entrance for several hours for the treatment. A video of the mother crying over the child's condition had gone viral on social media. 

The Free Press Journal reports that the regional director claimed the child was already dead when brought to the hospital. Dr. Sanjay Mishra, the director, said, "The child was brought to the hospital in a dead state. He was suffering from septicemia, and the parents had left the hospital premises satisfied with the consultation." 

He said, "The locals complicated the matter by calling the parents back. Seeing the dispute, the duty doctor said a post-mortem would be conducted, but the family disagreed, and the matter was escalated."

As per an NDTV media report, when asked about the delay in attending to the child, an on-duty doctor at the health center reasoned that his wife was fasting a day before, due to which he got late in reaching the medical center. Similarly, an official reportedly said that those responsible for the incident had come late since they were fasting for a festival. 

Pawan Kumar, the boy's uncle, said, "We came to know that Lokesh Kumar was busy with the special puja at home because his wife was fasting that day."  According to local residents, the doctors posted at the health center and the medical officer were not available even hours after the child's death. The incident has reportedly triggered anguish and frustration among local residents and is an indicator of the poor health infrastructure of the state. 

After the video went viral, the Congress leader and former chief minister Kamal Nath attacked the BJP government and said, "It is shocking that people are dying without treatment. This is a failure of the state government, and the health minister should resign." On Twitter, he wrote that such images had been constantly coming from various parts of Madhya Pradesh, and the government has not been doing anything. He demanded the government investigate the incident, take strict action against those responsible for it, and to help the child's family in every way possible. 

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