M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, Dec 24: The inquiry into the case of ‘stillbirth delivery on railway platform number 1 of the Daltonganj station on the night of December 7 without any medical assistance, has come to a temporary halt following the tracelessness of the victim woman named Saraswati Devi (25). She was unfound till Friday, December 23.
Saraswati’s address available with the labour room in the Medinirai Medical College Hospital reads as Saraswati Devi, Shahpur, Chainpur which is inadequate with no cell phone number of any of her acquaintances.
The inquiry has been ordered by Palamu DC Anjaneyulu Dodde and a fresher IAS officer Shrikant Vispute has been asked to unfold the case of the sorrowful delivery of the woman wherein her male child died and MMCH Daltonganj was quick to declare the baby ‘brought dead’.
The inquiry officer has asked the health officials to trace the woman and present her for taking statement on what happened to her on the night of December 7 when she delivered a dead baby on the railway platform.
DC Dodde said, “Let the inquiry be over. The findings of the report will be sent to the state government.”
The woman is yet to be traced as she used to be a frequenter to the railway platforms eking out a living by doing odd jobs.
District programme manager Deepak Kumar Gupta said, “We have received instructions from the inquiry officer to find her out by all means to note down her side of the version.”
While the search is on for the victim woman while the inquiry officer had served a set of queries to Anil Kumar Tiwary, the station superintendent of Daltonganj railway station in this regard.
When contacted, the station superintendent refused to talk about this issue saying, “As the probe is on, it won’t be proper to speak to the press about this episode.”
However, reliable sources informed that the superintendent was asked about to whom phone calls were made and what their responses were then for providing medical assistance to the woman on the platform. He was also asked what medical facility was made available at the first hand and did it reach the woman who delivered the baby on the platform.
Frantic calls were made by the railway official to seek medical help for the woman that night. The calls were made to 108 for an ambulance and there was no response. Calls were also made to the official number of the civil surgeon Palamu which were not responded to. Calls made to the district programme manager too went in vain.
Earlier on Dec 21, Dr Dilip Kumar Singh, the medical superintendent of MMCH Daltonganj, intimated the Palamu civil surgeon Dr Vijay Kumar Singh in writing about the Mamta Vahan call centre remaining closed at night.
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However, there was a valid issue with the official number (9431138224) of the Palamu civil surgeon. The CS said when the incident took place, this phone number was in possession of the previous civil surgeon Dr John F Kennedy who has been suspended in a case lodged by the Anti Corruption Bureau. Dr Vijay Kumar Singh said he got access to this phone the next day (December 8). He thus tried to explain the no response from this phone number on that fateful night.
When asked about the negligence and carelessness in this delivery case, the Palamu CS said, “Our additional chief medical officer (ACMO) Palamu Dr Anil Kumar did respond quickly. He even rushed the ambulance but it was a mismatch of the location that spoiled his efforts.”
Explaining the mismatch of the location, he said, ” Our ACMO Dr Anil Kumar is the Garhwa civil surgeon and so when he got a call for an ambulance from the railway official, he rushed the ambulance to the Garhwa railway station under the impression that the ambulance was needed there that night. He was not specifically asked for an ambulance to Daltonganj railway station. It could be a human error on either side that the location for the ambulance was not shared between the two the caller here the railway official and the ACMO clearly and categorically.”
Apart from that, the three calls made to the district programme manager are in the eye of the storm. The railway version is that it has concrete proof of making the calls to him which all went unattended. However, district programme manager Deepak Kumar Gupta maintained that he was in the bathroom and so could not respond immediately.
He further maintained that he oversaw the treatment etc of the woman in the hospital where it was taken care of by the concerned medical professionals. Gupta reiterated he oversaw further co-related medical works through a very experienced ANM Chanchala Kumari.
The woman was brought to MMCH by one assistant sub-inspector of police GRP thana Azad Ansari paying money for her transportation by a four-wheeler. There was no role of local police in her transportation as trumpeted earlier which was most calculatedly orchestrated.
