Ambulance service provider official booked for baby's death due to emergency vehicle's malfunctioning

A senior official of the company which operates '108 ambulance service' in Chhattisgarh has been booked in connection with the death of an infant after the door of an ambulance malfunctioned, police said here today.

Bikram Singh, the chief operating officer (COO) of GVK EMRI, was booked by the Maudhapara police last night following a complaint by Raipur district's Chief Medical and Health Officer (CMHO) Dr K S Shandilya, Superintendent of Police (Kotwali area) Sukhnandan Rathore told PTI.

GVK EMRI has been operating the Sanjeevani Express 108 ambulance services since 2011 in the state.

Singh was booked under IPC section 336 (endangering life or personal safety of others), Rathore said, adding that no arrest has been made so far.

A probe is underway and further action will be taken accordingly, he said.

A two-and-half-month-old baby died yesterday due to a delay in treatment after the door of the ambulance, in which he was brought to a local hospital, failed to open because of a malfunction, alleged the infant's father.

CMHO Shandilya said the ambulance comes under emergency services and any negligence on part of it will not be tolerated.

In his police complaint, Shandilya accused the operating company of negligence in maintenance of ambulance vehicles, the medical officer said.

The infant's parents had come from Gaya in Bihar by train to get the cardiac surgery performed on the child at a private hospital here.

But, the child had to be rushed to Dr B R Ambedkar Memorial Hospital nearby Raipur station after his condition started deteriorating.

His father contacted Sanjeevani Express 108, a free ambulance service, and rushed the child to Dr Ambedkar Hospital.

However, when they reached the hospital, the door of the ambulance could not be opened for about 40 minutes, the child's father had alleged.

He had also said that he tried to break open the window glass but was warned by the ambulance staff not to do so as it was a government property.

He said the child had to be extricated from the window of the ambulance and rushed to the hospital where doctors declared the infant as dead on arrival.

GVK EMRI officials, however, had denied the allegations.

"The allegations are false. After getting a call for an ambulance at 10.15 am, the vehicle was rushed to Raipur station and it reached there at 10.18 am. Technicians who checked the vital parameters of the child found no response," said Shibu Kumar, government relationship officer of GVK EMRI.

He claimed that technicians brought the patient to the Ambedkar Hospital where the door of the ambulance got stuck for a "few minutes" due to "mechanical problems".

He said that they extricated the child from the window of the ambulance and rushed him to Ambedkar Hospital.

Another official of the company said today that the child was extricated from the window within 15 minutes after the door of the ambulance got stuck.

The parents were taken out after about an hour when the door was opened with the support of the local hospital staff, the official said.